


No Such Thing as Fate

by burntotears



Series: No Such Thing as Fate [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hunters, Alternate Universe - Supernatural, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Codependency, F/M, Feels, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor Mentions of Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Mystery, Pack Dynamics, Plot-Driven Story, Texting, comic books
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-09-29
Updated: 2013-10-02
Packaged: 2017-11-15 03:26:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 32,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/522627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/burntotears/pseuds/burntotears
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><a href="http://spuzz.tumblr.com/post/30310927869/teen-wolf-au-after-their-families-are-killed-by">After their families are killed by supernatural entities</a>, Stiles and Allison become a team of hunters, following the leads of any bizarre murders in an attempt to bring the families justice and peace as well as trying to find their own closure.  Their trail eventually leads them to Beacon Hills where a series of bizarre animal attacks has the sheriff’s department baffled and the local werewolf pack struggling to protect their town.  <a href="http://spuzz.tumblr.com/post/30447689084/teen-wolf-au-previously-with-stiles-and">With Stiles and Allison’s arrival in Beacon Hills</a> the animal attacks escalate.  Allison and Stiles investigate the crime scenes and run across two members of the Hale pack doing the same, Derek and Laura, who have been concerned about the deaths in the town and the scrutiny they bring with it. The four agree to join forces along with other members of the Hale pack, Erica, Isaac, and Boyd, in order stop whatever is killing the townspeople.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. We'll Make a Pact

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU, however I have done my best to incorporate the Teen Wolf S2 storyline as well as I could, which means _if someone dies on the show, they will probably die in this story._
> 
> A few elements from Season 3 might be found here and there, so you've been warned.

“ _Stiles_ ,” Allison heaved a sigh, shaking her head wearily as the melancholy voice filled the inside of the jeep. “We’re not listening to _A Dance with Dragons_ again.” She tapped the steering wheel impatiently, pulling the jeep out of the gas station and onto the highway again. They were only about an hour’s drive from Beacon Hills now and they were both anxious to finally reach the small town that would have remained forever forgotten in the northern Californian forests if not for the recent attacks that had put it on the map for good.

“Come _on_ , Als,” Stiles whined. “Who knows when Martin is going to write the next book. I have to take what I can get!”

“Driver’s choice,” she retorted and popped the CD out of the player and handed it over to him, earning a groan from her passenger. 

“It’s _my_ jeep!”

“It’s _my_ engine,” she shot back, giving him a significant sidelong look before facing the road again. 

“Fair point,” he conceded grudgingly, leaning back into the seat with a distinct pout. Allison had paid for a new engine when Stiles’ jeep had finally crapped out a year and a half ago, so the old gal partially belonged to her. Not that Stiles would ever admit to that. Never give Allison too much power or you’d be regretting it for the rest of your life - Stiles was learning that the hard way every day.

Allison snagged one of the CDs she had stashed above the visor and shoved it into the player, ignoring Stiles’ exasperated sigh when the familiar music filled the vehicle. Allison was predictable, but then again so was he so he shouldn’t really be judging anyone. Except that Allison was the weirdest chick that he knew (not that he really knew a lot). Allison shoved entire cheeseburgers into her mouth , worshipped classic rock bands, hated makeup and high heels, drank beer and made fun of Stiles’ moisturizing body wash but stole it from him all the time. And of course there was the fact that she could shoot an arrow at any target without missing from ranges that would turn Hawkeye into a bumbling fanboy. 

Though Stiles didn’t love all of Allison’s music, and though he preferred listening to books rather than music when it was his turn to choose, sometimes he could jive with her choices - and they got inside his head sometimes too. Generally he tried to make the best of it, so as the chorus swelled he bellowed out the words in his most ridiculous singing voice:

“ _I want to ride my bicycle  
I want to ride it where I liiiiike_

 _You say black I say white_  
 _You say bark I say bite_  
 _You say shark I say hey man_  
 _Jaws was never my scene_  
 _And I don't like Star Wars-_ ”

Allison turned down the volume on the stereo, shaking her head. “Okay, that’s enough of _that_. How about that lead, Sherlock?”

Stiles perked up a little at the mention of the lead. If he wasn’t going to get to listen to a book, at least they could talk about something productive. He shoved his hand into the glove box and pulled out a book that was tattered and well-worn at the edges, with markers sticking out all throughout. He ran his finger along the edge until he found the marker he wanted and opened the pages to it. He rifled through a few looseleaf articles and written note pages and pulled out a specific article he’d printed off earlier.

“The normally quiet town of Beacon Hills has found itself subject to a slew of unusual deaths in recent weeks,” Stiles quoted off from the article, “all with similar crime scenes according to the authorities that investigated. These local authorities are attesting the deaths to wildlife gone rabid and are searching for mountain lions and possibly even _wolves_ that might be confused because of the illness. The sheriff is encouraging members of the town and surrounding communities to stay alert steer clear of the surrounding forest area until they have caught the wayward animal or animals responsible for attacking people. He also cautions everyone to stay indoors during nightfall when nocturnal beasts are high on the prowl.”

Allison scoffed. “Or supernatural ones.”

“Right. According to the reports from the morgue, the bodies were-” he swallowed, and there was a pregnant pause in which they were both thinking the same thing, but weren’t vocalizing any of it, and then he continued, “-mutilated with what looked like claw marks. But the markings looked a bit too clinical for just a wild animal attack. A swipe down each appendage and-"

"A cross swipe on the back," Allison muttered, almost to herself.

"Yeah," Stiles affirmed anyway. It was something they knew all too well, something they had seen in their nightmares so many times that Stiles didn't even need to look at the pictures of the victims to know exactly what the claw patterns looked like. He had still looked at them anyway. "That information has not been released to the public."

Allison snorted. "No shit. Can't really explain away the mountain lion that knows how to play arts and crafts with people's backs."

"Guess not," Stiles agreed, more subdued as he attempted not to wince at her unfortunate but accurate description.

“How many have there been?” she asked, and he knew that she was attempting to drag his thoughts from the more gruesome corners of his mind.

He was happy to take that bait. “Four in the last two months,” Stiles replied. “They all had the markings. The sheriff’s department and the medical examiner are the only ones who know. No consultants have been called in yet and no one has been hovering, but it’s only a matter of time.”

“They’re scared of what they’ll find if they actually _do_ bring someone in,” Allison noted.

“They won’t find anything,” Stiles said, glancing over at her questioningly. 

“Not when we get there and find it first,” she replied with conviction, gripping hard at the steering wheel. He had the same hope that she did. The hope that this was finally the lead they’d been waiting for - that they were finally going to get somewhere...

 

Their arrival in Beacon Hills was nothing over-eventful. If they expected to immediately be greeted by a faceful of supernatural beings, they found nothing but ordinary people living perfectly typical boring lives. Allison was less than pleased by this, but Stiles took it in stride and just navigated her to the local motel in town.

Parked outside in one of the few spaces available, Stiles went in before Allison and dropped his duffle on the floor at the front desk. He banged his palm down on the bell when he didn’t see anyone standing around to help him. 

“Just a minute,” he heard a male voice say from a back room and Stiles leaned against the counter, surveying the entrance area; it wasn’t exactly a dingy place. They had definitely stayed in some darker and danker places than this one, but it certainly wasn’t four star quality. The town didn’t seem to be very large though, so he could understand not needing a large hotel chain to move in and take over the business of the guests that came and went.

A man finally came out behind the counter from the back room and greeted him. Stiles looked down at his nametag and saw ‘Manager’ and ‘Matt’ there. “Heya, Manager Matt. We need a room, please.”

“We?” Matt asked, raising an eyebrow and wrinkling his nose in displeasure at something Stiles had said - possibly the nickname. Allison walked in the front doors then with her duffle and the laptop bag slung over her shoulder. She gave Matt a welcoming smile and deposited the items next to Stiles’ duffle bag.

“That would be _we_ , yes,” Stiles answered, gesturing his hand up and down at Allison. Matt was studying her with large, searching eyes and Stiles had to resist rolling his own at the man. Matt looked about the same age as they were - maybe a little older - so he couldn’t be terribly surprised by that reaction. He was used to people ogling Allison everywhere they went and they had used that to their advantage on more than one occasion. He didn’t really appreciate the incredulous look that Matt was now giving _him_ though, as if he was in disbelief that Allison would go for a guy like him.

“Welcome to Beacon Hills,” Matt said, speaking entirely to Allison now. “What brings you to our town?”

“That’s none of your business-” Allison stopped, looking at his nametag and then gritted out, “ _Matt_ ,” harshly. The dude didn’t look very phased by her outburst of seemingly unwarranted anger at his invasive question, so he’d probably had that happen to him before when he’d asked. Unless he was really just that zoned out while staring at her, which could also be possible.

Stiles just sighed and shook his head. “We’re not at liberty to say, Manager Matt,” Stiles said in his best ‘mysterious but all business’ voice. Allison harrumphed next to him and crossed her arms defiantly, still staring Matt down like he had greatly offended her. He was now on her shit-list. Bad luck, Matt. 

Matt’s eyes went wide and he looked skeptical, finally chancing a look away from Allison to Stiles. “Seriously?”

Stiles nodded. “Seriously. Let’s keep that quiet, shall we?” He pulled out his credit card and handed it to Matt who just nodded dumbly at him, taking it without further comment, though he couldn’t stop glancing helplessly at Allison who just kept glaring at him. 

When they took their keys and walked toward their room, Allison said lowly, “I don’t trust him.”

“You don’t trust anyone we meet,” Stiles laughed easily.

“Yeah, but he seems shifty.”

“You snapped at him for no reason. I’d be shifty too.”

“And really, Stiles? FBI again? You really think that’s not going to come and bite us in the ass?” Allison looked annoyed as she stuck the key into the door of their room and pushed it inward.

Stiles scoffed. “What other reason would we have to show up in a small, unsuspecting town wracked with recent so-called animal attacks? Insurance adjusters?”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe a couple of mountain lion specialists? It’s not like the local veterinarian is going to be an expert on determining the difference between bites and scratches of a mountain lion and some other supernatural creature,” she said as she tossed her bag on the bed near the door and immediately started digging through the contents until she pulled out her crossbow and the accompanying arrows.

Stiles stopped midway while unpacking his own weaponry (he preferred guns to archery, but there was a reason Allison was the the ace with that) and looked over at her. “Huh. Yeah, I guess that would have worked too.”

“You’re a fucking idiot.”

“Love you too, Als.”

Allison pulled the police scanner from her bag and began to fiddle with it just as Stiles’ phone chimed. He tugged it from his pocket to check the text message.

_**Scott said:** Got ur shipment in_  
 _ **Stiles said:** Yes! Awesome!_  
 _ **Scott said:** Where u guys at?_  
 _ **Stiles said:** California_  
 _ **Scott said:** Cali?! What r u doin there?_  
 _ **Stiles said:** Following a lead._  
 _ **Scott said:** Fuck, u better come get it or I’m sellin it to someone else_  
 _ **Stiles said:** What? Dude, no, you can’t sell my shit!_  
 _ **Scott said:** I cant hold it that long Stiles. U know I gotta sell this shit_  
 _ **Stiles said:** Scott, I swear to god if you sell my shit I will tell Allison that you are in love with her and I will NEVER help you out - NEVER!_  
 _ **Scott said:** WHAT? FUCK. Dont tell her anythin man!_  
 _ **Scott said:** Fine. U got 2 weeks Stiles! Thats all u get tho!_  
 _ **Stiles said:** Okay. I can get there in two weeks. Just hold onto it._  
 _ **Scott said:** Fine. Dont tell her anythin!_  
 _ **Stiles said:** I won’t._  
 _ **Scott said:** Ur an asshole_  
 _ **Stiles said:** You’re a dick._

“Who’s that?” Allison asked as she adjusted the police scanner on the nightstand.

“Scott,” he said and she was frowning instantly. “He’s got my shipment in,” Stiles grinned.

Allison, of course, just rolled her eyes. “He is totally gouging you.”

“He is not. Scott’s good for it,” Stiles replied defensively.

“Stiles, Scott is a dumbass,” Allison said with conviction - and so it began again. It was the _Allison-Bashing-Scott_ variety hour that Stiles just couldn’t get enough of. Seriously, the sexual tension was ridiculous between the two of them. He’d tell them to just fuck already, but - oh wait, they already had! If Allison was ever willing to admit that she had real human emotions and wasn’t a damned robot, the whole thing would be easier on everyone. But no, Allison hid her feelings underneath her vendetta and it made getting romantically close to her practically impossible. For some reason, Scott didn’t find it to be a lost cause. Maybe Scott _was_ a dumbass.

“He is not a dumbass, he’s a fucking wizard at demon possession,” Stiles said as he took his laptop from her bed and started pulling it from the bag it was hiding inside of. If he pretended that he was researching something, maybe he’d get out of this never-ending Scott conversation.

“He learned everything he knows from Melissa and you know it,” Allison responded and she was still fiddling with the police scanner. It didn’t seem to be working properly, which was bad news, because they needed that thing to know if any calls came in about new attacks - and that scanner had been expensive, too. Dammit.

“I never said he didn’t learn it all from her, but that doesn’t change the fact that he still knows it. You can’t knock him down just because he had a mentor in his mother, Allison.” Stiles would love one conversation about Scott that didn’t involve talking about how he was a piece of crap. It was tiring. “You are just angry that you had one bad date with the guy.”

“It was not a bad date. It was just bad sex,” she said with annoyance seeping into her voice.

“That’s not what you said the day after,” Stiles prodded even though he knew it was probably a bad idea.

“He wouldn’t stop texting me, okay? He’s clingy! I had to change my phone number!” she sounded a little hysterical, but not angry exactly.

“Yeah thanks for that. Now he just texts me instead,” Stiles said as he rolled his eyes. Scott wasn’t really _that_ bad though, so he didn’t mind the once a week check-in texts that asked how Allison was doing. It was too bad Scott had fallen for Allison, who refused to let anyone in. He would have had better luck with an _actual_ robot.

“Oh for fuck’s sake!” Allison groaned in frustration and Stiles thought she was getting annoyed with the police scanner that still wasn’t working, but he should have known better. “They are just comic books, Stiles! You can get them _anywhere!_ You do not need to order them from Scott!”

Stiles was offended. “They are limited editions, Allison! I can’t just pick them up any ole’ place, Jesus! Don’t be stupid! And I order specialty bullets from him too, so it’s not just comics that he sells me!” he added, affronted by her sudden attack on him that he knew was really an attack on Scott, but it was still unfair.

“We are not leaving this job to go get comic books!” Allison was glaring daggers at him, daring him to contradict her.

“We’re not going - he said I’ve got two weeks!” Stiles shot back, annoyed at her bitchiness.

“Well- _fine!_ ” she huffed, obviously unable to argue it further when he still had two weeks to stop by Nebraska and pick up his things. He’d manage it, but he knew that this was not the last he’d hear about it from her.

The room filled with a sudden crackling static and a voice popped over the receiver. Stiles closed his mouth over the retort he had ready and they crowded around the scanner. “ _Two-thirteen_ to all units, we have a hiker reporting a ten-fifty-four on a Beacon Hills Preserve trail about 200 feet from the perimeter. Requesting all available units to report to scene immediately.”

Stiles looked over at Allison with wide eyes. “ _Dude!_ ”

“Dispatch to _two-thirteen_ , do you have confirmation on that? Have you seen suspicious activity in the area?”

“I know,” Allison responded. They had listened to enough scanner audio to get a general idea of what it meant, even when they weren’t familiar with the local codes. Luckily Beacon Hills had adopted the standard 10 codes so she and Stiles knew exactly what was going on.

“ _Two-twenty-six_ , I am almost in vicinity.”

“Copy that, _two-twenty-six_ , I’ll meet you at the entrance. Dispatch, no confirmation yet. No ten-sixty-six to report.”

“Dude! Allison!” Stiles said again and pushed her shoulder with excited emphasis.

“Ten-four.”

“ _Two-nineteen_ , I have arrived on scene.”

Allison frowned at him. “Stiles, _I know_.” There was a possible dead body. They had been there all of 20 minutes and there was already another dead body. That had to be a new record.

“Copy that, _two-nineteen_. _Two-thirteen_ and _two-twenty-six_ entering the Preserve. Standby for confirmation. All units be alert for possible ten-ninety-one-victor.”

“Oh bullshit! Are they really looking for a rabid mountain lion?” Stiles groaned at the scanner like they could actually hear him.

“Shhh!” Allison said, hitting him in the back of the head as he spoke over one of the police officers.

“-suspicious persons in the area.”

“Copy that. We are ten-ninety-seven.”

“ _Two-thirteen_ , what is the situation at the scene?”

“Deceased male. Blonde hair, blue eyes, possibly attacked by an animal.”

“Standby for medical examiner’s arrival, _two-thirteen_.”

“Ten-four.”

“Dude! We have to get out there!” Stiles said, looking from the scanner to Allison.

She nodded. “We need to stay off the radar, Stiles. Don’t go charging in trying to take over the investigation. This is the first attack, so we’ve got no reason to already be on scene.”

“When have you known me to go in guns blazing?” Stiles quirked a brow and stood to collect his gun and shove it in the holster inside his jeans. As he placed his extra clips inside the belt holster, Allison snorted.

“Now that you mention it, we’d better bring those badges just in case. The chances of you not drawing attention to us are very slim.” 

“Your faith in my abilities is staggering,” Stiles replied, looking up to see that she had finished packing her duffle. Stiles could conceal his guns easily enough, but Allison couldn’t conceal her crossbow. That didn’t mean she was going to go anywhere without it, though. Dead bodies meant trouble and Beacon Hills was currently screaming the word trouble at the top of its lungs. They weren’t going to take any chances.

 

“Stay back!” a police officer called, pressing back on the barricade that was being pushed forward by the surge of people attempting to get a closer look at the gruesome scene in front of them. There were at least 30 civilians gathered there already and while that created great cover for Stiles and Allison to blend in while trying to check out the crime scene, it also made it more difficult to get a good look at much of anything.

By the time they had found the Preserve on GPS and made their way to the right location, most of these people had already been gathered alongside the swarming press. Obviously they weren’t the only ones who knew how to work a police scanner. That or Beacon Hills was really _that_ small. 

Stiles felt himself being shifted to the side with the throng of people as a wild-haired brunette man in uniform was making an attempt to corral the press away from the barricade.

"Sheriff Finstock, do you have ID on the victim?" called out a reporter who shoved a microphone into the man’s face who was apparently the sheriff of the town. Good to know. Stiles gave Allison a knowing look and they both committed him to memory, seeing as they were going to have to speak with him later on, no doubt. 

"We haven't been able to ID the victim yet. We’ll release more information in the near future. Now if you'll excuse me...” the sheriff looked seriously frazzled as he turned away from the gathered press massing around him and ducked back under the yellow caution tape.

“Does he seem jumpy to you?” Allison asked as they watched him leave.

“That depends on your definition of jumpy,” he said, because really the man could just be tired. He’d been dealing with a lot of dead bodies lately and maybe he wasn’t getting a lot of sleep. Or maybe he had been getting laid before this call came in and was pissed about the interruption. Or maybe-

“Greenberg! What the hell are you doing? Does your job always call for contaminating the evidence of a crime scene?” Stiles snapped his attention to the sheriff yelling at a fumbling deputy near the body. Or at least he assumed it was near the body - Stiles couldn’t really _see_ the body past the mass of civilians, officers, paramedics, and the gurney parked right in front of it, which he swore had to be intentional. 

“I would define it as _that_ ,” Allison responded dryly, giving him a look. They both watched in silence after that, seeing basically nothing from their perch at the back of the crowd. Stiles’ eyes kept falling on two other people standing on the opposite side of the crowd from them. It was a man and a woman who looked like they were probably siblings, both with piercing hazel eyes, dark brunette hair, and an overall intimidating disposition. The man more-so than the woman, but you could still tell that she could hold her own. They kept looking his and Allison’s way when they spoke to each other, almost as if they knew when that was, which was completely bizarre and made Stiles uncomfortable.

“Let’s come back tonight,” Stiles said. “We’re not getting anything from this anyhow.”

Allison nodded and they left for the jeep, but Stiles still felt those eyes piercing into the back of his head as they walked away.

 

“Are you sure this is the right spot?” Allison asked as they traipsed through the dark with flashlights shining on the damp leaf litter.

“Allison, it was like six hours ago, of course I’m sure,” Stiles scoffed, leading them back to the area where the body had been found. It would be gone now, but that wasn’t what they were there for. They needed to check the area for other clues that the police didn’t know to look for. A few more steps and the yellow caution tape came into view. “See? Now I want that 20 bucks you owe me, Doubting Thomas.”

“ _Please._ That bet was null and void the moment you let the witch trick you into bed with her.”

“It was not! And look, she was totally convincing, okay? I thought she was really into me!”

“Of course you did, you’re horny as hell. You should really consider getting laid while we’re here.”

“I really don’t feel comfortable having this conversation with you, Als,” Stiles replied, aghast.

“Yeah, you are obviously the real girl in this relationship,” she laughed and pushed against his shoulder.

“You are _so mean_ to me,” he quivered his bottom lip with mock hurt.

“Shut up and find something useful for once in your life,” Allison said and turned the lantern on. 

Stiles responded with a guttural grunt, but set to work. They surveyed the ground inside of the caution tape, looking for anything and everything they were used to seeing on these types of jobs, though neither of them wanted to acknowledge that they were actually looking for something similar to what had happened to their own families four years ago. Stiles and Allison had long since perfected the ways of speaking without speaking, and playful banter and knowing looks were just a couple of the ways they accomplished that.

They had been searching for about seven minutes when Stiles called Allison to him. He was looking at the bottom of a tree trunk, a little ways away from where the body had been. “Look at this,” he said and pointed to what looked like claw marks on the tree.

“They’ll say it was the mountain lion,” she said automatically.

“Of course they will, but look,” Stiles pointed to the back of the claw marks where a fifth mark was visible pulling against the other four.

Allison looked confused at first, but finally she saw it. “Mountain lions don’t have thumbs.”

Stiles grinned at her. “No, they don’t.”

“Stiles Stilinski, you genius! I could kiss you.” She grabbed his face roughly and planted a sloppy kiss on his temple.

He rolled his eyes and pushed against her shoulder to get her away from him. “This wasn’t a lion and it wasn’t a wolf either.”

“What about-” she stopped mid-sentence and Stiles knew why; he thought he heard a twig snap somewhere nearby. They remained crouched for a couple of minutes in silence and then Allison said quietly, “Take a picture; we should go,” instead.

Stiles nodded and did exactly that, trying not to look around them as they walked back to the jeep. There didn’t seem to be anyone around as they were leaving the scene, but he couldn’t shake that eerie sense of being watched and he didn’t like it.

\-----

If they were expecting to have a difficult time finding crime scenes to check out, they were in for a rude awakening. The next morning a call came in on the police scanner - another body was found not far from the one the hiker had stumbled upon yesterday. 

“This doesn’t feel right,” Allison said, pulling her hair back into a ponytail. “They only had four deaths within two months and now two bodies have turned up since we got into town?”

Stiles nodded. “I think it’s about time we got involved, don’t you?”

She sighed and nodded. “I hate wearing a suit.”

“But you command so much authority,” he grinned.

 

“Excuse me,” Allison said and nodded to the nearby deputy on the fringes of the caution tape. “We need to speak with your superior,” she flashed her badge that read _FBI Agent Kara Thrace_. The deputy nodded and went to get the frazzled looking sheriff from yesterday.

“How can I help you?” Sheriff Finstock asked when he was lead over. 

“Sheriff,” Stiles said and flashed his own badge ( _FBI Agent Malcolm Reynolds_ ), “I’m Agent Reynolds and this is Agent Thrace. We’re here to investigate the escalation in your so-called animal attacks.”

“So-called?” the sheriff’s voice cracked a little.

“Well, you had four attacks in two months and now you’ve had two attacks within the past two days. That seems highly unorthodox,” Allison responded coolly.

“Don’t worry, sir, we won’t interject into the investigation unless absolutely necessary,” Stiles said, playing himself as the proverbial good-cop.

“Try not to make it necessary,” Allison tacked on snottily.

“Uh - yeah. Right. Right this way,” he said and lifted the tape for them to enter into the scene. Stiles rolled his eyes both at Allison and the way she made every man nervous, even when they were 20 years older than her. It was ridiculous.

The scene didn’t really offer much more information than anything they had seen before, even being able to see the body now. The victim had the same markings as everyone else had had, and Stiles found a five-claw scratch on the ground nearby. He had to close his eyes against the sight of the body in front of him to get his bearings at first - seeing them in a picture and seeing them plain as day right in front of you were definitely two different things.

“Pretty gruesome, huh?” a man asked to his right. Stiles’ eyes flew open and he took in the sight of a dark-skinned deputy. “Deputy Mahealani,” the man extended a hand to Stiles.

Stiles took the hand and shook it. “Agent Reynolds,” he responded. “So what do you think it is?”

“Some kind of animal - has to be. Must be rabid though, to be attacking like this. Sheriff thinks it’s a mountain lion, but my bet’s on a wolf.”

“Wolf?” Stiles looked skeptical.

“They still come around, even if they are rare. Sometimes alone, sometimes in small packs that wander in from the other states. We’ve had them come in from Yellowstone before.”

“Really,” Stiles said and it wasn’t a question. His mind was definitely considering a type of wolf, alright. The only kind that had _thumbs_. He really needed to get that shipment from Scott.

“Malcolm!” Stiles heard Allison call in her annoyed voice and he pulled out of his daze.

“Oh right. Excuse me,” he said to the deputy next to him and walked over to Allison. “What’s up?”

“There’s nothing here. Let’s go,” she said and they excused themselves, Stiles already tugging his tie loose. He hated wearing ties. They had walked a good ways away from the gathering throng of people when two figures stepped onto the path, blocking their way.

“Who are you two?”

Stiles and Allison both started, their minds apparently having been elsewhere as they walked. It took Stiles a moment to recognize them, but they were definitely the same two people from the crime scene the day before. From this close up, he assessed that they had to be siblings, their eyes were practically identical.

Stiles squared his shoulders while Allison glared. “We don’t have to answer that,” he said. “But you do. Why are you impeding the advance of two federal-”

“Bullshit,” the man said, cutting Stiles off. He was taken aback. Most people didn’t call him out so quickly. “You’re not federal agents, we saw you lurking at the crime scene yesterday.”

Stiles narrowed his eyes at him and spat back, “Yeah, well - we saw _you_ there too. So who are you, exactly?”

His sister looked amused by the exchange happening between her brother and Stiles, her arms crossed loosely over her chest as she watched them snarl back and forth. Stiles glanced over at her and felt something tug inside his stomach. His attention was pulled away from her when the man practically growled at him, “We live here, we have every right to be investigating murders in our own town.”

“Not if you aren’t official law enforcement either, dumbass,” Stiles retorted and he wasn’t really certain why this guy was grating at his nerves so much, but fuck if he wasn’t. Stiles had never met someone he disliked right on the spot, but this was definitely going to count as the first time.

The man looked over at his sister as if he were expecting backup, but she only held a small smile on her face and apparently was offering him nothing of the sort. Stiles looked at Allison and found a similar expression. _What the hell?_ “What are you two doing here?” the asshat asked, exasperated.

“Exactly what we told them,” Stiles gritted. “We’re here to investigate the murders. And if that’s all _you_ are doing, then I guess there shouldn’t be a problem.” He glared at the man and then quirked his eyebrow questioningly at the woman, who just shrugged a shoulder at him with a small smile, but still said nothing. She was obviously enjoying this too much to put her two cents in. “We’re not here to cause trouble, alright?” he said and this time he was speaking to the woman, who he felt inexplicably drawn to. There was something about her cocky smile that reminded him of his - _fuck_.

She finally spoke, as though she felt his sudden discomfort and wanted to ease it. “We believe you,” she said and smiled warmly at Stiles. He felt his heart skip and then settle into an even rhythm almost instantaneously. It was possibly the calmest he’d felt in years.

The man looked over at his sister incredulously. “No we _don’t_.”

“Yes, we _do_ , Derek. Let’s go,” she said and grabbed her brother’s arm and drug him bodily out of the way of Stiles and Allison’s forward progression. Stiles instantly felt colder, but he tried to ignore it by shaking his head and making his feet move again. He wished that they had learned the woman’s name instead of the brother’s.

“Wow, Stiles. Sexual tension, much?” Allison teased, knocking her shoulder up against him as they walked.

“W-what?” he looked at her hastily. “No! She just-”

Allison laughed. “Not _her_.”

Stiles gaped stupidly at her. “ _What? Him?_ Are you kidding? Als, that’s ridiculous, that guy is - he’s a fucking asshole. Jesus.”

“An asshole who wanted to get in your pants,” Allison smirked.

“You are so delusional. Not everyone is looking to fuck me like they are you,” Stiles scoffed, shaking his head. Derek was a dick, there was no doubt about that, but he sure as hell wasn’t looking at Stiles with glaring eyes because he was thinking about taking off his clothes. 

“Like I said, you _really_ need to get laid,” Allison sing-songed and wrapped her arm around his shoulder companionably. 

“ _Ohmygod_ don’t say that shit and touch me, that’s so creepy, Allison!” he said and pushed her away from him.

\-----

He shouldn’t have been surprised when they heard that another body was found the next day, but it still bothered him. He didn’t want people being killed every day, especially when they had no idea what it was that was doing it in the first place. They hadn’t figured it out three years ago when they first started on this journey and they weren’t any closer now than they had been when their families were both murdered in their high school days four years ago. Whenever he thought back on it, it felt like almost a lifetime ago. Living in Texas and seeing his mother and father every day after school...

“Stiles? Are you ready?” Allison asked him with a tentative hand on his shoulder.

He coughed and nodded, standing up from his motel bed. “Uh yeah, sorry. Zoned out.”

Allison nodded and they walked silently into the entrance of the motel. “I’ll go get gas for the jeep. Why don’t you get us some breakfast?” she said, side eyeing Matt as she said it. 

He nodded and went into the small area to the side where they offered some bagels, toast, and pre-packaged cereal. Lucky Charms - _jackpot!_ He took a box for himself and popped a bagel into the toaster for Allison. He poured the cereal from the tiny box directly into his mouth and then rounded on Matt.

“So, Manager Matt,” he said in his all-business voice. “What do you think about these animal attacks?”

Matt still didn’t seem very pleased with his nickname. He frowned at Stiles, still staring at the door that Allison had vacated two minutes ago. “Are you interrogating me?”

Stiles raised an eyebrow. “No? I’m asking you what your opinion is on them.”

“My opinion on them,” Matt answered slowly like he was talking to a child and finally looked over at Stiles, “is that they probably aren’t animals.”

“Why do you say that?” Stiles asked, interested. He upturned his cereal box for more marshmallowy goodness. Probably looked unprofessional, but where was the written law that said FBI agents didn’t eat cereal? He wanted to see it!

“You really have to ask?” Matt raised his own eyebrow, looking skeptical, like he didn’t believe Stiles was really an agent if he was swallowing all the hype that was being thrown around. Matt was kind of a dick.

“I’m asking _you_ , Manager Matt,” Stiles replied smoothly. Or at least he hoped it was smooth and not resentful.

Matt just rolled his eyes. “Animals don’t attack with that much precision. Anyone with half a brain could see that.”

Stiles nodded along and started when the toaster dinged. He gave Matt a small laugh and turned his attention to Allison’s bagel. By the time he finished with it she was out front honking the horn of the jeep. 

“Well, thank you for your theories, Manager Matt,” Stiles said as he was walking out the front doors and Matt scowled after him, still displeased about being called by that name. There were many other things Stiles could call him, so Matt should be grateful.

“What’d he say?” Allison asked when Stiles got in and handed her the bagel.

“He said he doesn’t think they’re animal attacks,” Stiles responded around a mouthful of Lucky Charms. “Too precise.”

“I told you we couldn’t trust him.”

“Because he’s not an idiot?” Stiles asked.

“Because he might know too much.”

 

There was still nothing of import to gather from the new crime scene. Everything was exactly the same as before, though this wasn’t exactly surprising. Same markings on the body, same five-claw marks nearby on a branch, and nothing else to go on besides that. It was infuriating, but they didn’t have much time to dwell on it because they ran into their two new companions while they were leaving the scene again.

“We really have to stop meeting like this,” Stiles said with a small smile toward the woman, who he couldn't help but feel drawn to for inexplicable reasons. No, he knew exactly why he was drawn to her, he just wondered if she had that same feeling; but then, why would she? It wasn’t like she was old enough to have a 21 year old son. “I’m going to expect dinner soon.”

She laughed and her eyes were shining from it. Stiles could remember his mother’s eyes shining like that. _Fuck._ “Maybe we should introduce ourselves first? And then we could possibly consider helping each other since we’re obviously going to be running into each other a lot.” She shot a look at Allison, because she apparently knew that Stiles didn’t need any convincing. He probably would have walked the plank if she’d asked him to. _Shitshitfuck._

Of course Allison wasn’t going to agree to that. “We’re not telling you anything until we know exactly who you are,” she glared at the both of them and for some reason she was blocking Stiles in somewhat, like she expected him to just walk right into a trap that was being sprung. Okay, maybe that had its merits, he was acting pretty weird around that woman.

“We have no reason to trust you, Allison, and you have no reason to trust us. We understand,” the woman said. “But considering that you and - Stiles, was it?” she asked and he nodded stupidly, forgetting that neither of them had ever given their names. Allison glared over at him. “Considering that you and Stiles have come here under false pretences, we are not overly inclined to accept you with open arms either. But let me introduce ourselves. I’m Laura Hale and this is my little brother Derek Hale. You probably noticed yesterday that he can get a bit grumpy.” She smiled at Stiles when she said it and he laughed.

Allison pushed against his shoulder, like it was some kind of offense that he laughed at a joke. “Chill out, Allison - Jesus.”

“How did you know our names?” she asked defensively, half of her body still blocking Stiles off from Laura.

“We have our ways,” Derek replied in what was apparently supposed to be a mysterious air. Stiles frowned instantly, because something about Derek just really pissed him off.

“Whatever,” Allison replied with annoyance. “It doesn’t make sense that civilians would want to help look into random animal attacks. Something else is going on with you guys. We aren’t going to help you unless you explain who you actually are. I suspect you already know who we are if you already know our names. I don’t like it and I don’t trust you.”

Derek looked over at Laura, who nodded and they both looked back at the two hunters. “We do know who you are, Allison, which is part of the reason we are leery of working with you. Hunters aren’t known for thinking before they act,” Laura said.

Allison narrowed her eyes and Stiles could see the hatred in her eyes. He preemptively grabbed her by the shoulders. “ _ **What** are you?_ ” she screamed and there was spittle running down her chin as she tried to lunge at them. Stiles held her firmly and shook his head.

“Als. _Allison_. Stop it. You don’t even know-”

“ _Werewolves_ ,” Derek sneered, more to Stiles than Allison, like he had a point to prove. That yes, they definitely _were_ a threat and Stiles should be just as worked up as Allison was right now.

“ _Fuck_ ,” he breathed and staggered back, pulling Allison along with him while she struggled against his hold. He had to pull her flush against his chest and grip her in a bear hug at that point, because Allison wasn’t weak by a long shot and it took all of his strength to hold her at bay. Especially when he wasn’t entirely certain that he wanted to keep her there.

Laura was apparently berating her brother for being tactless, but Stiles couldn’t hear most of it over Allison screaming in his ear. “Stiles, let me go! Let me go - I’m gonna _kill_ them! They did this! They’ve been killing these people and they killed our parents, Stiles! Let me go, dammit!”

“Allison, stop! _Please_ ,” Stiles groaned, because he knew this wasn’t right, but he couldn’t think straight with her freaking out like this. It didn’t add up, but he needed the proper environment to access all of it. That didn’t include restraining his best friend from murdering people while she screamed at him. He finally squeezed her stomach and screamed back, “Allison, it wasn’t them! They wouldn’t be coming to us if it was them, okay? Fucking stop already!”

Derek looked like he was ready to knock her out if she didn’t calm down soon and on this they were unfortunately inclined to agree. If Allison didn’t stop that might be the only option, loathe as Stiles was to admit it.

“You’re going to side with them, Stiles? They murdered our parents and you’re going to _take their fucking side?_ Let go of me! Don’t _touch_ me! I can’t _believe_ you!”

He couldn’t see her face, but he could hear the tears in her voice. Allison hadn’t cried in _so fucking long_ and now she was crying again - she was crying because she thought he was betraying her. This was just too much. He couldn’t fucking deal with this. “Would you two do something besides fucking _stand_ there?” he asked exasperatedly, so desperate that he was actually asking the werewolves to help him with his best friend. The _werewolves_ he didn’t know, didn’t even fucking trust, as the tears began to pool in his eyes and blind his sight and he struggled to keep Allison enveloped in his arms.

Laura was the soothing presence he needed. Of course she was, what else was she going to be? “What do you need us to do, Stiles?” And just her voice was enough to calm his frazzled nerves and still his erratically beating heart. His brain was finally able to work normally again.

“You need to get away from us for now. I can’t calm her down with you guys here. She won’t listen. We’ll have to talk about this later. I-” he was trying to think of some way to get in touch with them, but Laura figured that out for him and started feeling against Stiles’ pockets until she found his phone. In any other situation it would have been extremely uncomfortable, but he couldn’t bring himself to really be bothered by it then. She punched her number in and shoved the phone back in his pocket. 

“Just call me when you’re settled,” she said sweetly and then she turned and snagged Derek by the elbow and was dragging him away again, just like the day before. He was both grateful and sorry to see her go.

Stiles lowered them down to the ground in a tangled heap of limbs, holding her firmly in his arms. “Allison, c’mon. You know that it wasn’t them,” he coaxed her. She wasn’t screaming anymore and he couldn’t hear any sniffling so he wasn’t really certain what she was doing then besides struggling to get as far away from him as possible.

“You don’t know that,” she replied stiffly and she finally stopped struggling against his hold.

“I do, and so do you. If their pack is here and this is their territory, they wouldn’t be killing the humans that live here. They’re investigating the murders because they are trying to keep the attention away from the town and away from _them_. You know that it’s true.”

“ _Stiles_ ,” her voice was broken and quiet. He loosened his grip on her and turned her in his arms, pressing her against his chest in a hug instead of a crushing hold. She went willingly, for once, even though Allison rarely wanted to hug or display any affection that wasn’t playful or demeaning in some way. The only time she ever gave into that comfort was at night when they were having the nightmares, which was coincidentally when no one else was around to see it. “We were so close. I wanted it to be them. I wanted it to be over.”

“I know, Als,” Stiles said into her hair, sighing. He rubbed her back and pressed his eyes closed against the tears that pooled in them. “We’re still close. It’s here, and it knows that we’re here too. We’ve got to flush it out - but we’re going to need help.”

Allison pulled back and looked up at his face. “You’ve gotta be joking. You are seriously considering working with werewolves, Stiles? _Seriously?_ ”

He sighed. He knew that she wasn’t going to be as open to it as he was, but then she rarely was. He was always more open to the more unconventional means if it meant getting there quicker or easier, whereas Allison was a by-the-book type of hunter. Literally, she only wanted to go by what was in the Argent family book and nothing else. Stiles hadn’t grown up in a family of hunters though - well, he _had_ , sort of, but not in the way that Allison had - so he wasn’t prone to the same biases that she was. “Als. They live here, this is their territory, they have fucking super-sniffers - you can’t deny that they would be a pretty big help.”

“Stiles. They are werewolves. We hunt them and we kill them. We don’t know how big the pack is, we don’t know what that pack has done in the past. And did I mention they are _werewolves?_ We can’t fucking trust them.”

“I didn’t say that we had to trust them, but we still need their help. Besides, if you want to know all that stuff, why don’t you just _ask_ them for a change?”

Allison sat back in the grass, groaning. “I hate you, you know that, right?”

Stiles nodded. “I know.”

“Fine. We’ll call them in the morning. We need to spend some time in town today and see what we can read off these people.”

Stiles stood and gave her a hand up. “Awesome. Let’s go eat first.”

Allison gave him a look. “Didn’t you just eat?”

“Please, Allison, that hardly counted. Besides, Mouthy Matt and Dickface Derek have over-sped my digestion with their asshattery. I need to refuel,” he said and patted his stomach.

“You are such a freak.”

 

“Welcome to Morell’s. My name’s Isaac. What can I get for you two?” the waiter smiled at them and Stiles only caught the tail end of it when he looked up from the menu. It was practically like a slap in the face, that grin. Stiles wasn’t sure he’d seen one quite that bright in a while, thought maybe it had more to do with the fact that Isaac had the bone structure of Greek god, with blue eyes and curly hair to match. Seriously? Who looked like that and worked in a freaking diner? What was _with_ this town?

Allison snorted. “I’ll have Dr. Pepper. He needs some ice water, apparently.” Stiles shook his head to clear the daze and glared at her, because Isaac had understood that completely and was fucking _smirking_ at him now. Goddammit Allison.

When he walked away Stiles bent low over the table. “Goddammit Allison, I will _murder you_ in your sleep.”

“What?” she asked innocently, shrugging a slender shoulder at him. “I didn’t do anything, but order your drink because you were too preoccupied staring into our waiter’s endlessly blue, oceanic eyes.” She smirked.

“ _Ohmygod_ , I do not talk like that!” 

“Yes you do!” she said, pointing at him accusingly. “Jamie Sullivan! Don’t deny it!”

Stiles groaned and covered his face with the menu. “I hate you, Allison Argent. I really-really do. How do you even _know_ about her?”

She grinned. “Lydia.”

“Fucking hell, this is bullshit,” he threw his hands in the air. “Nothing is sacred to you people anymore. It’s like the code means fuck all anymore,” Stiles said sourly.

“Stiles, that only applies when we sleep together. It doesn’t extend to embarrassing secrets that you spill because you get piss drunk and have a ridiculous crush on Lydia Martin.” Allison was grinning like an idiot.

“I don’t have a crush on Lydia!” he said, a little too loudly. Of course Isaac chose that point to return to the table with their drinks. And now Stiles was stuck with water even though he didn’t want it, thanks to Allison being an ass. Screw that, he was drinking her Dr. Pepper with his straw.

“Are you ready to order?” Isaac asked and he was still smirky and somehow it didn’t make him less attractive. Stiles didn’t usually care for that, but Isaac didn’t seem to be condescending when he did it.

“Are you ready, Stiles?” Allison asked, purposely dropping his name for no reason whatsoever besides to annoy the ever-loving fuck out of him. 

“Yes, I am ready, _Allison_ ,” he hissed her name and then looked at Isaac pointedly, just to prove to Allison that he could. Of course once he did he wished he hadn’t, because he really was ridiculously good looking. “Isaac, I’ll have the pancake breakfast, please.”

“How would you like your eggs cooked?” he asked and he didn’t even look away from Stiles as he wrote down on his stupid little pad. What kind of magician was he?

“Over medium,” Stiles replied, still staring him down even though it was getting increasingly more difficult.

“Bacon or sausage?” Isaac asked, writing on the pad again without looking away from Stiles’ face.

Was he going to be that bold? Allison had already thrown him under the bus, so he might as well go for broke on this one. “Sausage,” Stiles replied and smirked. He’d like to say that it was a playful and flirtatious smirk and not one of sheer terror - but well, he was Stiles, after all. His face began to flush after a second and he scrubbed his hand over his shorn head in embarrassment that he’d actually said that, heart beating frantically in his chest.

Isaac just grinned at him though. “Do you want hashbrowns with that, Stiles?”

“Yes, please,” Stiles squeaked and finally broke eye contact. Isaac turned to Allison and asked for her order, still wearing a gigantic smile. All she ordered was fruity oatmeal, so it didn’t take very long and they handed their menus to Isaac and he walked away, saying their orders would be ready in about ten minutes.

“Holy shit, you totally flirted with him! Over breakfast foods! Since when do you do that?” Allison giggled, throwing a napkin at his face.

“I don’t know,” he groaned, banging his head on the table. “Just kill me now - that was totally horrifying. He thinks I’m a creep now. Who _does_ that? Fuck.” He banged his head on the table again.

Allison patted the back of his neck fondly. “Oh please, he was totally grinning the entire time. Maybe you actually _will_ get laid for once. Too bad he’s gay, I’d have taken a piece of that-”

“Hey!” Stiles’ head shot up and he glared at her. 

“You are so into him! God, Stiles, if you don’t give him your number when we leave I am going to kill you!”

It turned out that he didn’t have to, because Isaac ended up writing his number on the back of their check, indicating that it was for Stiles specifically - like that really needed to be clarified with the way Stiles had been acting like a buffoon throughout their entire breakfast. He had actually spilled his water on Isaac’s apron at one point and wanted to crawl under the booth and die right there.

“Still got game, huh?” Allison asked him with a wry grin.

“I seriously have no idea how that even happened,” Stiles blinked at the phone number on the check, shaking his head in disbelief as they drove back to the motel.

“You’re so stupid sometimes,” Allison said fondly.

 

Stiles wasn’t very surprised when Allison crawled wordlessly into bed with him that night. 

Hunters had a code for things they didn’t talk about, but Stiles and Allison had a completely separate code to encompass all the subjects that they would never breech. Allison would never talk about the nights when she would relinquish to her fears and let Stiles comfort her and he wouldn’t ask her to. Stiles no longer spoke about the nightmares after the first few times when he had lamented about his theories and Allison had finally said she no longer wanted to discuss them. They didn’t speak about their families or the way they had been murdered since the first time they had met and decided to team up and hunt down the bastards responsible. They never talked about their dependency on one another, the fact that they hadn’t spent a day apart in three years, and that they really didn’t _want_ to remember what life was like before they’d started hunting together. They didn’t talk about the times when they were emotionally connecting to other people, when they went out with a random person and had sex just to have the feeling, or when it meant more than just sex to them.

Because in the end, none of it really mattered. In the end, they didn’t need to talk about it, because it wasn’t going to change anything. The next morning when they woke up, they’d still be hunting, their families would still be dead, they’d still have nightmares, and they’d still be emotionally stunted thanks not only to a life lived out of the backseat of a jeep, but a life born of vengeance, hatred, and codependency.

Allison pressed her face against Stiles’ chest and fisted her fingers into the fabric of his t-shirt. He wrapped his arm around her waist and held her to him, pressing his face into her hair. He really hoped that tonight wouldn’t be one of those nights, but whenever they had a particularly emotional day, it always seemed to hit them the hardest.

Stiles stirred sometime in the night - it had to be around 3am if his internal clock was anything to go by, though he was too lazy to check his phone and see - to find Allison wrapped all around him like a blanket. She would never admit to the comfort they both leeched from one another on these nights, but Stiles wasn’t in it for the bragging rights anyway. There were guys who wanted to have sex with Allison, sure, but he and Allison had never had that type of relationship. They needed each other, but it wasn’t a sexual need. That was for the best, because they couldn’t lose what they had to a failed sexual relationship. 

He tried his best to disengage her limbs slowly from his waist without waking her so that he could go to the bathroom. She wasn’t a heavy sleeper, but whenever they slept together she let her guard down and drifted into a deeper sleep than she would allow herself when in her own bed. Allison was always teetering on the edge, ready to fight at a moment’s notice, but she had no qualms about putting her life in Stiles’ hands - even when they were unconscious. It didn’t make any sense whatsoever, but he had that same blind faith in her too. Allison was a bit more reckless than Stiles could ever be, but she was always looking out for him and he would always be watching her back.

He had no idea why he was thinking about all this while he took a freaking piss. Maybe because they were finally so close, after chasing the same skeletons for three years and never finding anything consequential. If all the roadmaps converged on Beacon Hills then he was more than happy to let that be that, but he still didn’t understand _why here_ and _why now_. It was scratching at the back of his head, making his skull itch with worry that something wasn’t right, but he couldn’t figure out what. His dad had taught him that his gut was something to be listened to - Sheriff Stilinski had solved countless cases back in Texas by going with his gut instinct - but he still had to find evidence to back up the tangled knots that wretched inside him, telling him to watch his every step.

Stiles washed his hands and walked out of the doorway of the bathroom, his hand hovering over the lightswitch as he looked over and saw Allison sitting up in the bed. He sighed. “Hey, did I wake you up?” he whispered, even though they were the only ones in the room and were obviously both awake now. Something about the middle of the night just called for whispering.

“Yes,” she replied stiffly. Her voice sounded strangled, uncomfortable like she hadn’t used it in a while. Well, she had just woken up.

“Sorry,” he replied. He couldn’t see her very well, just the outline of her sitting there from the light that poured out around where he stood in the doorway. “You okay, Als?” he asked anyway, because it seemed like a safe option.

“No, I’m _not_ okay, Stiles,” Allison said and her voice was choked now. Had she been crying?

Stiles walked toward the bed as he asked, “Allison, what’s w-”

He cut off when he heard a familiar _twang_ sound and felt something dig its way sharply into his stomach. He gasped instinctually, hands reaching down to feel the area in question. There was liquid warmth and a cold metal rod sticking out of his stomach. “Allison?” he questioned quietly. It was all he could think to say as pain began to overtake all his senses and he could no longer stand on his own feet. He fell to his knees, clutching at the arrow that protruded from his stomach and looked helplessly at the outline of Allison in the light from the bathroom.

She stood from the bed and hovered over him and now he could see her face, twisted in something like determination and distaste. “Now you can’t betray me, Stiles. I can’t trust you. I can’t trust you-”

They both startled at the same time, Stiles accidentally hitting Allison on the back of the head as he jerked awake. She didn’t seem to be all that bothered by it though, as she was too busy staring horrified at his stomach. And this was awkward because they never talked about them - they barely ever acknowledged them now - but neither of them had ever attempted to murder each other in one before either. He wasn’t really certain what the protocol for this would be.

“ _Stiles_ ,” Allison whispered and she sounded so disturbed, staring at his stomach which was perfectly fine of course. She placed a gentle hand on it, like it might suddenly start spewing blood as it had in the dream. 

“Hey. Hey Als, it’s fine,” he cooed and he grabbed her underneath the armpits and tugged her up onto his chest and hugged her. “No harm done.”

“ _Why?_ Why would I-” she whispered into his chest, still shell-shocked.

“Doesn’t matter. It was a dream - wasn’t real. You wouldn’t, Als, okay? Don’t think about it.” Easier said than done, of course, because Stiles would do more than think about it - he’d obsess over it and analyze every minute detail to try and find some meaning behind it while Allison did her best to forget. He knew that it _meant_ something. So far they had found dead bodies - sometimes those had even been each other’s bodies - but they had never _killed_ anyone in the nightmares before. It was this town, these attacks - all the pieces were finally falling into place. 

They were close. This really might be where their search finally came to an end.


	2. We All Have a Weakness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I know this is unbelievably late after the first chapter. I had most of it written already, I just didn't have the time or will to finish it off. I'm finally getting my ass in gear though, so I hope you enjoy it.

When morning came, Allison didn’t say anything more about the nightmare. It wasn’t that Stiles necessarily expected her to, but he did think that maybe she might say something this time because the nightmare had been so different. But he’d known Allison for three years now and he’d spent every one of those days with her, so he should have had better sense than to think she’d open up that easily.

“Alright,” she sighed at him after she’d done everything that morning she possibly could to drag out the time. “Let’s call the damn werewolves.”

“Don’t make it sound like we’re headed to the gallows or anything,” Stiles muttered, pulling his phone from his jeans. He scrolled through his contact list until he found where Laura had put her name in yesterday and hit _Send_.

She picked up after only two rings. “Hello?”

“Uh - yeah, hi. Is this Laura?” Allison was sitting across the room rolling her eyes at him.

“Yes it is. Is this Stiles?” For some reason she sounded like she was excited to hear from him, which didn’t make much sense, because **a)** she didn’t know anything about him and **b)** the reasons that they needed to work together weren’t exactly ‘fun and friendly’.

“Yeah. I think we are ready to meet your - uh, pack.”

“Great! Derek and I have already told them about you two, so we’ll get them together this afternoon and we can all meet and discuss how best to proceed. How does that sound? I’ll text you the address, okay?”

He knew that he could probably trust Laura, but he also knew better than to go to an undisclosed location given to him by a pack of werewolves. “Um, Laura? I don’t think we’d be comfortable-”

“Oh Stiles, of course, I wasn’t even thinking. We can meet at the motel if you like? Or the diner in town? Where would you and Allison like to meet?”

Something felt off about having them come into their motel room - like the enemy crossing over into their territory - so the diner seemed like the best option for now, even if it was fairly public. “Let’s meet at the diner since we already know it - Allison and I ate there yesterday.”

“Sounds perfect. Isaac works there, did you meet him?” she asked and Stiles felt his face growing hot at the mention of the curly-haired blond.

“Er, yeah, he was our waiter. Do you know him?” Stiles wondered just how small this town actually was.

Laura laughed. “You could say that. Alright, we’ll see you this afternoon, Stiles. It was nice talking to you again! Have a great morning, hon!” She hung up the phone and he stuck it back in his pocket.

“She said they’d meet us at the diner this afternoon with the rest of their pack,” Stiles reiterated to Allison, though she had probably picked up on most of it already.

“Good. Since we have time to kill, let’s go to the police station and poke around,” she said, standing and getting ready to leave.

Stiles groaned. “I don’t _wanna_ ,” he whined. “I hate talking to the police. They’re so boring.”

She scoffed. “That may be, but we need to get to know them regardless. So get off your lazy ass and let’s get moving.”

 

“How’s about we actually solve some fucking crimes around here for once, huh boys? Can we do that?” was the ringing yell that filled Stiles and Allison’s ears when they entered the station. Maybe they shouldn’t have been surprised - Sheriff Finstock didn’t seem like he knew how to deal with people.

“Sheriff,” Stiles greeted him, walking up behind the wild-haired man. He whipped around to face the hunters, eyes almost as wild as the brunette locks on his head. 

“Agents. Was just giving the boys a little pep-talk. What brings you to the station?” In his defense, he was pretty good at recovery.

“Wanted to stop by and have a look around if that’s alright,” Allison answered smoothly, barely bothering to glance at him as she spoke. 

“Oh, right. Well we’re pretty busy this morning. We had a break yesterday after you left.”

“Really?” she said, her interest piqued.

“Yeah, my best man, Whittemore, found animal hairs on the body. Let me get him for you,” the sheriff barely turned his head and screamed, “ _Jackson!_ Get your ass over here!”

A rather cocky looking blond entered the room from the far corner, answering, “Yes, Sheriff?” casting critical glances toward Stiles and Allison.

“These are the FBI agents that are here investigating the attacks. Agents-” he pointed at Stiles and apparently couldn’t remember his name.

“Reynolds and Thrace,” Stiles answered for him.

“Right, right.” Finstock clapped the man on the shoulder, “Jackson here found animal hairs on that body yesterday. We sent them off to the lab for testing. Tell them, son.”

The deputy named Jackson raised an eyebrow at the sheriff, who nodded at him expectantly. Sighing, he repeated in a snarky manner, “I found animal hairs... on the body yesterday. And we’ve sent them off... to the lab... for testing.”

The sheriff guffawed good naturedly. “Right you are! Good job, son! Now _get back to work!_ ” he gave the other police officer a hard look and pushed him back toward where he’d come from. “Quick as a whip, that one,” he said to Stiles and Allison once Jackson had left.

Stiles looked at Allison with a raised eyebrow. “Do you mind if we look around, Sheriff? We’ll be out of your hair in no time.”

“Sure, sure. We can contact you when the results come in on the animal hairs from the body?” he asked uncertainly.

Allison snorted. “We’ll be in touch. There’s no need.”

“Oh - right. Okay,” he said carefully and walked away without another word. 

“Someone planted animal hair?” Stiles asked her quietly.

“Looks like it. Think it’s mountain lion?” she asked him.

“Probably. Wolf would be harder to get ahold of. Don’t think it’s werewolf do you?”

“If they’re that careless then I have even more issues with them than I already had,” she said dryly.

“Hey, _you two_ ,” a voice said behind them and they turned around to find Jackson glaring daggers at them. “I don’t know what the two of you are here for or why, but let’s get one thing straight: we don’t _need_ your help." Apparently Jackson could speak for himself and unsurprisingly, he was an _ass_. "We are perfectly capable of solving our own investigations without the _feds_ sticking their noses in. If you’re hiding something, I’ll figure out what it is - so watch your backs. I’ve got my eyes-”

“Jackson!” the deputy that Stiles had talked to on scene before hissed at him. He put a hand on Jackson’s shoulder and said something quietly into his ear and then pushed him away; surprisingly Jackson went without another word to any of them.

“I’m sorry about him. He gets worked up when people start dying,” the deputy said. “I’m Danny, by the way,” he extended a hand to Allison and nodded to Stiles again.

Stiles raised an eyebrow. “ _When_ people start dying? You’ve had a lot of people die around here before?”

Danny shook his head. “No, not really. Only once. There was a fire about eleven years ago at the Hale house...most of the family was trapped inside and died in the fire. The Hale family has been in Beacon Hills for ages so it was very significant to the whole town. There’s only three of them left now.”

Stiles and Allison looked at one another and he knew that she was thinking the same thing that he was. Apparently the Hale pack wasn’t very large at all if the entire family had almost been wiped out eleven years ago - which also meant that it was probably hunters who had done it. That didn’t make his and Allison's being in Beacon Hills look very good right now if that was actually the case. 

They needed to see those files. “Danny, could we take a look at those case files?” he asked the deputy.

“On the fire?” the man asked quizzically.

“Yes, this is the first we’ve heard of it and we’d like to learn more about it,” Allison replied without missing a beat.

“I don’t really know of a reason why you couldn’t, but I don’t see how it’s related? The fire was ruled an accident and these are all animal attacks...” Danny furrowed his brow, obviously trying to figure out how they were placing a connection between the two.

“Regardless, we’d like to see anything you’ve got on the Hale house fire, please,” Stiles said calmly, trying to keep the excitement from his voice. This was definitely an edge they could use before going into the meeting with the pack, especially not knowing how many of them there were. It may still just be the three of them like Danny said, but there was no guarantee that the Alpha hadn’t sired new wolves into the pack or mates hadn't been taken by this point.

“I’ll have Greenberg get you the files,” Danny said and went toward the back of the offices.

 

“It says here that Laura, Derek, and their uncle were the only ones who weren’t in the house when it went up in flames,” Allison pointed to the police report and looked up at Stiles on the other side of the bed, who was munching on Doritos. “Stiles, wipe your hands off before you touch any of this. The last thing we need is to hand back case files with cheese fingerprints all over them.”

“God Als, I’m not an _idiot_ ,” he said and wiped his hands across the front of his hoodie, leaving orange stripes down his front. He snatched at the police report that she had pointed at so he could read the information she was referring to. “So there used to be eleven in the Hale pack? You think they were all werewolves?”

Allison chewed on her lip. “I don’t know. Maybe. Danny said that they had been here a long time, so they may have been holding this territory for a while.”

“Allison it says on both of these incident reports that arson was suspected. Do you think that they were-”

“Murdered by hunters? If the police and the fire departments both suspected arson but they couldn’t pin it on anyone, I wouldn’t be surprised. I’m sure that Laura and Derek know for certain though,” she said, looking at the pictures of the smoking house that must have been taken after they had put out the fire.

“You gonna be the one to ask them if it was hunters that murdered 75% of their family while we are already outnumbered and overpowered? ‘Cause I sure as hell ain’t.” He could only imagine Derek’s response to a question like _that_ , and they hadn’t even met the uncle yet so they had no clue of his character.

“We probably won’t have to. You think we’re going to sit down for a meeting with a pack that’s been reduced like this and that subject isn’t going to come up? Especially with these deaths happening? You know they are going to blame us first.” Allison continued to rifle through the photographs, finally getting to those taken of the bodies of the Hale family members. She only winced momentarily before replacing her features with a stoic stare as she thumbed through them.

Stiles shrugged a single shoulder. “They’ve been hunted their entire lives. Can you really blame them for being biased against hunters?”

“Can you blame me for being biased against werewolves?” Allison shot back all too easily and Stiles sighed. She had a point, of course, because they had run across more than their fair share of werewolves that were killing for pleasure and had to take care of them, but he just couldn’t see Laura as that kind of wolf. Yes, she did remind him of his mother, but even so, she had that vibe she put out that didn’t ring any warning bells in Stiles’ head. 

“Touché.” Stiles opened his mouth to say something else but his phone chimed.

_**Laura said:** Can you meet us at Morell’s in 15 min?_

“It’s Laura. Wants to know if we can be there in 15 minutes.”

“Yeah, sure. We can finish looking at this when we get back. Let’s put it in the safe, just in case.”

_**Stiles said:** We’ll see you in 15._  
 _ **Laura said:** Great! :)_

“Alright, I guess it’s time to enter the wolves’ den.”

 

Stiles was pretty certain that a warmer welcome could have taken place between them and the werewolves, but in his defense, he really had had no idea. “Laura, _what the fuck?_ Why didn’t you tell us their _names_ when you mentioned them?” Isaac all but yelled into the open air of the diner when Stiles and Allison approached the group that apparently made up the rest of Laura and Derek’s pack and - _oh_.

 _Oh fuck._ Stiles’ mouth lay agape as he stared directly at Isaac, standing next to Laura, not in an apron today, but snug-fitting jeans and a v-neck t-shirt. “You’re a _were_ -”

“If you finish that sentence in the middle of this diner,” Derek growled at him, stepping forward, “I’m gonna rip your throat out. With my teeth.”

Laura reached forward and put a hand on his shoulder, pulling him back. “That’s enough, Derek. Stiles, please be careful what you say before we’ve been seated. We’ve got a special booth for just this sort of conversation.”

Stiles nodded numbly, too many thoughts swirling through him at once to choose just one to latch onto at the moment. He was still floored by the fact that Isaac was a part of the damn Hale pack - it was the most ridiculous thing in the world, _seriously_. Was he ever going to catch a freaking break?

He and Allison followed the Hale siblings and Isaac, along with three others that Stiles hadn’t bothered to get a good look at yet, into a side room of the diner he hadn’t even noticed the first time they were there. It probably served the purpose of hosting birthday parties or something, but today it was neutral meeting ground for the werewolves and hunters. Lovely. 

As soon as the doors swung shut, Isaac rounded on Stiles with an accusatory glare. “You didn’t happen to mention that you make a living by slicing people in half while you were _flirting_ with me yesterday,” he glared unpleasantly and it was not something that Stiles thought looked good on Isaac’s face at all. Not that he cared all that much right then.

Stiles narrowed his eyes angrily. “Oh, that’s probably because you forgot to make note that you were a member of the merry band of local _murderers_ when you gave me your number, so I guess that makes us square!”

“Hey! C’mon now, that’s not what we came here for!” Laura called and stepped between the two of them, putting a hand on Isaac and Stiles’ chests simultaneously. There was a slight upward tick to her lips, like she was slightly amused by the exchange but was trying to hide it.

Even with the faint condescending smirk, Stiles’ heart evened out and he took a deep, calming breath; Isaac mirrored the action on Laura’s other side. Realization hit Stiles like a smack in the face. “ _You’re_ the Alpha?” he gawked at Laura, who stood with a commanding presence even though Isaac towered a good half-foot above her. How had he missed it earlier?

Laura smiled sweetly at him and pulled her hands back from both of the men. “Yes, I am. That doesn’t usually work on humans that aren’t in the pack though-” she said, eying him with interest.

“Oh, um-” he looked at Allison desperately, but he hadn’t really told her about the incidents with Laura earlier, so there wasn’t much that Allison could say. He rubbed his hand over his head and the back of his neck nervously. "I'm not sure. I just feel... calmer around you?"

Laura nodded, seemingly taking it in stride. "That’s interesting,” she replied and she sounded earnest.

“That’s not normal,” Derek frowned at Stiles, instantly on the defensive.

“Shut up, Derek,” Isaac said. “It's Laura. I felt the same when I met her.” For a second Isaac softened when he looked at Stiles and Stiles felt a little less annoyed with him.

“That’s a lovely sentiment, Isaac,” said a man that Stiles hadn’t bothered to pay any attention to yet. Stiles could only assume it was Laura and Derek’s uncle by his age. “However, you also were never a hunter either. I think the situations vary drastically. Laura, you have to admit that having a hunter warm to you is alarming.”

Laura raised an eyebrow at her uncle. “I don’t. Whatever Stiles may or may not be, it doesn’t change that our connection is obviously strong and I’m not going to ignore it - especially not if it helps him. And that has nothing to do with why we’re here, if any of you remember.”

“It kind of does though,” the blonde girl spoke up for the first time and Stiles looked over at her, biting at his lip. How did this whole freaking meeting suddenly become about some weird connection between him and Laura? “You want us to work with them, but they’re hunters. We don’t know anything about them. We don’t know how many werewolves they’ve killed in the past or how willing they are to lie to our faces, then stab us in the back the first chance that they get.”

Allison scoffed. “Oh _please_. We don’t know anything about _y’all_ either. You think we’re going to just take it on blind faith that you’re gonna be good little doggies and not attempt to rip out our throats as Derek has already so kindly threatened to do to Stiles? And let’s not forget that there are _two_ of us and _six_ of you. I think we’ve got the right to be on edge here. Besides, you haven’t proven that you aren’t the ones murdering all these people.”

“We _live_ here. This is _our_ home and _our_ territory and you are trespassers. We have nothing to prove. You are the ones who have come onto our land with nothing but lies and suspicious behavior. The only people who need to prove that they aren’t murderers here are _you two_ ,” Derek growled at Allison, but glanced over at Stiles for some reason even though he hadn’t said a damn word. “Ever since _you_ came into town the murders have increased. Why is _that?_ ”

“We don’t _know_ , that’s what we’re trying to figure out, _Derek_ , you giant fucking assha-” Stiles couldn’t help but yell. Derek was such a dick about everything and Stiles hadn't even said anything to him.

“ _Enough!_ Honestly, I am tired of this! There are people dying out there and we don’t have time to squabble like school children! Stiles, Allison, if you’re really here to try and solve the murders - we’d like to know what brought you here and we’d like to actually get to _solving_ them. Derek - _shove it_ , before I give you a reason.” Stiles heard her growl in the back of her throat and he thought for a second that her eyes flashed a different color, but it was so quick that it could have just been the light. Whatever it was, Derek was done mouthing off - Laura’s word was final, that was for certain.

Stiles was so fucking glad that she was the Alpha.

“What brought us here were the stories of the murders and the fact that they are complete bullshit. We know it isn’t an animal that’s murdering them - well, it’s not a _mountain lion_...” Allison sneered, looking at the lot of them with a disapproving look.

The last guy who hadn’t said anything yet finally spoke. He was black and on the bulkier side, built more like Derek than Isaac who was lean and lanky. “We aren’t killing anyone. You already know that though, you just want to blame us because it’s easier than facing the truth.”

Well, dude was intelligent, Stiles would give him that. Intelligent, but apparently had a death wish. Allison was in his face in seconds, pointing a finger at him and looking murderous. Yep, Stiles saw that one coming from a mile away. “You don’t know _anything_ about me, Wolf. Don’t make judgements about my life and my motives for doing things.”

Everyone else was now on edge, ready to pounce, as if _Allison_ was somehow going to harm the bulky werewolf. Yeah, right. Stiles moved to pull her back anyway.

“C’mon Als, I don’t think that’s what he meant by it. Just calm down, yeah?” She let him pull her away and fell into his arms, both of them feeling more secure nearer each other in a room filled with ‘enemy’ werewolves.

Stiles scanned his eyes around the room, looking at each of them in turn. “Look. This is what we do. We follow leads when we find them. We’ve been on the lookout for strange murder patterns and when we find them, we go to the town and we check them out. We figure out what’s causing the murders, we take care of it, we move on. Simple as that.” He knew that they weren’t going to buy it. He knew that he was going to have to tell them. He didn’t want to talk about it again. He definitely didn’t want to with Allison there; he hadn’t told the story to anyone in a while.

Laura was the one that answered him, which he was grateful for, though the subject could have been better. “You’re looking for whatever killed your parents? It killed both of your families?” she ventured.

Stiles forgot about Allison’s outburst in front of Derek and Laura yesterday. Apparently he didn’t have to tell them much of anything. “Yes,” he answered simply. That felt easy. That was simple, non-committal.

“Stiles, are these murders similar to your families’ murders? Are they really so identical that you’d come all this way?”

Stiles felt Allison go stiff in his arms. He tried to squeeze her and pull her closer, but she pulled away and looked at Laura with near dead eyes. “It’s exactly the same. Whatever murdered my family - whatever killed Stiles’ parents - is here, killing people again. The same damn way, every single time. It’s not an animal, it’s not human, we don’t know _what_ it is - we’ve been trying to figure that out this entire time. And we _will_. We will find it, we will torture the mother fucker to an inch of its life, and then we will kill it as slowly as is fucking possible. _That_ is what we are here for.” Allison looked around and dared anyone to disagree with her.

“It knows they’re here,” Isaac said after a few moment’s silence. Stiles shifted his gaze over to him, staring uncomfortably. “That’s why it has been killing more than it was before.”

“That’s basically what we suspected too,” Stiles confirmed. “There’s a fairly good chance that it wants to finish us off. The question is: why is it _here?_ What does this town have to do with our families? We’ve never been here before,” he said more to the werewolves than Allison, because they’d already talked about Beacon Hills and if they had ever heard of it before from either of their families.

“Your parents?” Peter asked.

Stiles shook his head. “My parents weren’t those type of hunters - or hunters at all. Long story,” Stiles shook his head and Isaac raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything. Stiles continued, “Allison’s family usually stuck pretty close to home. They documented all of their jobs in journals for uh - for Allison to learn from, just in case.” He tried his best not to look at Allison as he talked about her family, because he knew she didn’t like hearing it, especially not Stiles talking for her. “Look, I know you won’t like this idea, but I think we need to call in some backup.”

“ _What?_ ” about three people said at once. One of them was Allison, which he was expecting.

“This thing is powerful, whatever it is, and we need specialists. Allison and I are good hunters, but we don’t specialize in anything. We have friends that do though.”

“No,” Allison said without hesitation.

“Allison, shut up.”

“Why is she saying ‘no’?” Isaac asked, looking skeptical.

“She’s saying ‘no’ because it’s _Scott McCall_ ,” Stiles said, exasperated. “Also Lydia Martin. Scott is a demon expert and Lydia is an expert on rituals, languages - those sorts of things.”

“Oh, I’ve heard of Lydia,” Laura said, grinning.

“What? Really?” Stiles asked, unable to hide the surprise and the obvious awe in his voice.

“Absolutely, she’s legendary. She’s been making a name for herself since she was twelve. She’s brilliant,” Laura nodded with a small laugh. Stiles had a feeling that she already _knew_. This connection apparently wasn’t one way.

“Yeah, she is,” he said, still sounding awkwardly wistful when he talked about Lydia. _Fuck_.

Isaac was narrowing his eyes at this exchange and Laura began smirking more. “Isaac.”

“What?” he asked, cocking the douchiest pose Stiles had ever seen. It was definitely a ‘I’m a mother fucking werewolf and I am beautiful and badass; you should be awed to be in my very presence, so bow at my feet and praise me, mere mortals’ type of stance, and Stiles was sort of vaguely impressed that he was able to convey all that just by standing a particular way, but supremely annoyed that Isaac was now emitting Derek-levels of asshattery. This was _not_ the guy he’d met at the diner yesterday.

“Oh my god, you are jealous!” Laura pointed at Isaac accusingly.

Isaac’s face scrunched up in disgust. Stiles kept whipping his head back and forth between them, trying to figure out what was going on. “What the _fuck_ , Laura, what are you even _talking_ about?”

“You are jealous of a hunter you’ve never even met because another hunter likes her! Oh my god, this is so epic!” Laura walked over to Stiles and slung her arm around his shoulders. He looked sideways at her, still utterly confused. “Stiles, where have you been all my life? If I had known you’d make things this exciting I’d have found you ages ago.”

“Fuck you, Laura! You are such a bitch sometimes!” Isaac sneered, slinking into the corner away from them so he could lean against a booth with all the swagger God gave ten men. Really, how was that even _fair_?

Stiles leaned toward Laura and lowered his voice, still looking in disbelief toward Isaac. “You’re not seriously suggesting that he’s jealous that I have a crush on Lydia, are you?” The entire idea of it was so asinine that he couldn’t even begin to comprehend it, much less believe it. Isaac was sculpted from literal freaking marble and other godly materials, it was just impossible for him to be jealous of Stiles being interested in someone else. He could have anyone he wanted in this town - in this freaking _state_. And right now he was acting like he wanted to be anywhere in the world besides near Stiles.

“Suggesting? No, Stiles, that’s exactly what I said. It’s absolutely true. You don’t know our dear Isaac, but you just might soon enough. What you’re seeing right now is a defense mechanism. What you saw yesterday? _That_ was Isaac. _This_ is just a douchebag. Fairly similar to Derek, yeah?”

“ _Laura_ ,” Derek groaned lowly at her.

“Yeah, kinda,” Stiles admitted.

“As amusing as this hunter’s love life may be, can we get back to the real issues? Namely the asinine idea of bringing _more_ hunters into town? You aren’t really considering this, are you, Laura? We barely know _these_ two, we don’t know if we can even trust _them_ , and you think that we should allow them to bring reinforcements?” Peter said from the corner, still calm and collected, but there was strength in his voice when he spoke.

“Reinforcements? We’re not building a fucking army, we’re trying to stop a goddamned murderer!” Allison glared at the older man with ferocity.

“You’re out for revenge. You are clearly unstable.” Peter stared at her plainly, not cowed by her in the slightest.

Stiles was annoyed by that statement. “It’s not revenge, it’s retribution. Whatever that thing is, it deserves to pay for its crimes. It’s fucking _justice_ and we won’t _get_ any waiting on the police department. They won’t find anything.”

Isaac was chewing on the inside of his cheek, no longer holding his douchebag stance as he looked from Stiles to Peter and then to Laura. “You know that he’s right about that, Peter. We’ll have to catch it ourselves.”

“You keep saying _it_ , yet you are conveniently ignoring the fact that the murderer could most certainly be a hunter,” Peter mused with a smirk that was practically feral as he eyed Stiles and Allison.

“That’s bullshit,” Stiles said.

“How would a human accomplish that, Peter?” Laura replied, and she didn’t look amused.

“Humans are just as capable of dastardly ventures when they are vindictive enough. I think we are all painfully aware of that, aren’t we _Derek?_ ” Peter leered at the other werewolf.

Derek scowled at having been called out. Stiles wasn’t certain what was taking place, but whatever it was, it was not an inner-family rivalry. At least it seemed a lot more intense than that. “Laura, you know that they are capable of it,” Derek gritted out between his teeth, still giving Peter a deathly glare.

“What are they talking about?” Stiles asked, because now he had a feeling that he knew what was being referred to, but he wasn’t technically _supposed_ to know. He hoped that it didn’t show in his wording or the way his heart was beating. Fucking werewolves.

The blonde werewolf spoke again and Stiles realized that he still didn’t know her or the black werewolf’s names, but he noticed that they were hovering around one another in a way that suggested there was something more than pack comradery between them. “They’re talking about how hunters burned down the Hale house while the entire family was still inside. Laura, Derek, and Peter were the only ones that weren’t at the house and that’s the only reason that they survived.”

Stiles let his mouth gape a bit and he looked to Laura for confirmation, since she was actually a part of the family. She didn’t seem to want to offer up anything though. Her eyes looked empty and unseeing. Derek was the one who helpfully spoke up instead. “By the time the fire department got there, they had all died from smoke inhalation. We couldn’t get in to do anything and they couldn’t escape. We had to stand there and listen to our family suffocate and burn to death,” Derek spoke with a hard edge. Helpful was obviously a loose definition of what Derek was.

Stiles’ brow furrowed. “What do you mean, you just _stood there?_ If you got there in time why didn’t you get them out?” Anger was creeping into his voice, which was stupid since he didn’t know any of those people and it wasn’t like it changed the fact that they were werewolves. Well, some of them. And that was the problem - that wasn’t how things were done. Hunters didn’t murder human members of a pack family and they certainly didn’t murder children. It made Stiles sick to even think about. He knew that there were hunters out there like that, they had just never associated with them for that reason, though they’d crossed paths with a few over their three years.

“Stiles-” Laura began quietly, her voice sounding pained.

Peter cut across her though. “We just _stood there_ because the hunters surrounded the house with Mountain Ash. They made certain that even if someone in the family did happen to crawl toward the door after being drugged and beaten, it wouldn’t make a damn bit of difference, because they couldn’t escape. And of course we couldn’t get in to help them either. I’m sure you know how Mountain Ash works though, being such an accomplished hunter,” Peter dared Stiles to protest to that comment, staring him down dead on.

Stiles wasn’t going to dissent to his knowledge of Mountain Ash or wolfsbane or any of their properties though. He wasn’t even _thinking_ about that right now. His mind was latched to the horrors that had happened to this family at the hands of people who called themselves _hunters_ , murdering people in cold blood just like the monsters did that they were supposed to be _hunting_. There was a sudden and painful clench in his chest; Stiles felt his heart pick up and he took in a deep breath only to find that there was no air reaching his lungs. His head spun and he began to lose control of his footing and felt himself falling toward the floor, but arms caught him before he hit the ground.

“Stiles?” he heard someone say, but the person had to be miles away - he could barely hear her over the blood rushing into his ears and the pain that clenched at his chest. He still couldn't seem to pull in breath correctly and was leaning back into someone's chest while his heart practically hammered its way out of his own chest. He tried to say he was fine, that it would pass eventually, but the moment he opened his mouth his vision went black.

 

When he opened his eyes again he was sitting in the booth that they had yet to actually seat themselves at since they had arrived at the diner. Isaac was sitting across from him at the table, his blue eyes roaming over Stiles’ face. “He’s waking up,” he called to the room at large without actually looking away from Stiles.

Stiles noticed that there was an arm around his shoulders and snuggled into the person, assuming it was Allison. The body stiffened at the motion though, and that made Stiles whip his head around to see who it was. It made his head swim a bit and Derek’s face came into view next to him when his vision cleared. Stiles groaned. “What the actual fuck?”

Derek frowned at him, but he didn’t move. “Allison said you had a panic attack. She’s getting your medicine.”

“And you’re standing in as a werewolf space-heater _because_...?” Stiles prompted him sarcastically, because he _had_ to know this was awkward.

“You fainted. I caught you,” Derek replied easily, looking at him like he was an idiot.

“Hey - what? I didn’t faint! I black out sometimes and that causes me to lose control of my body, that is _not_ fainting!” Stiles protested.

“That’s the very definition of fainting,” Derek said and Stiles could have sworn he heard amusement in his voice. _Really?_ Derek was fucking joking with him now?

Allison came back into the room then and he felt gloriously saved from that awkward situation. “Hey dumbass, you haven’t been taking your medication since we got here, have you?” she said, shaking her head at him, though her voice was affectionate. She handed him a glass of water and some pills. Stiles received them without question or complaint and swallowed them the same way; if Allison ever wanted to drug or kill him, she would have an easy time of it because he never second-guessed her.

“Sorry,” Stiles said automatically, looking cowed and apologetic. He knew that it worried Allison and he hated doing that to her so he always felt like an ass when it happened. But he hated taking the anti-anxiety medications, because they made him feel more sluggish than his usual and that wasn’t inductive to solving gruesome murders like these.

Isaac looked back and forth between both of them before addressing Stiles. “So it really was a panic attack? You’ve had one before?”

“Yeah, it was. I've had a few until I started taking medication. Or y'know, if I don't take it." He shrugged and tried to get Isaac to stop staring at him with such interest and... concern? "It's really not a big deal. I'm fine," he added for good measure, but Isaac didn't seem very convinced by it.

"What causes it?" And Stiles was utterly surprised that Derek was the one asking, not Isaac.

"Uh - different things, just depends. It was the story though, and thinking about _my_ family..." He ducked his head when he felt his cheeks grow hot, but felt a hand cover his and his head shot up to see whose it was.

It was Laura. "It's okay, Stiles. Peter shouldn't have told you like that anyway. It was _rude_ ," she said and glared over at Peter.

"No-no, it's alright seriously. My fault," Stiles said and raised his other hand to wave in defense. "So, did you guys ever find out which hunters did that to your family?" he asked trying to pull the subject from himself.

Laura sighed and shook her head. "No, not really. We had an idea, but - well, those hunters turned up dead a few years ago...” Laura trailed off, looking a bit off.

Stiles nodded. “Yeah, that’s a pretty normal occurrence for hunters,” he replied without any sort of issue, like he was resigned to the fate even though it was a gruesome one. Stiles wasn’t looking forward to dying to some supernatural force, but the chances were still there, especially if whatever this thing was had some grudge against his family. “So I can see why you are opposed to us asking Scott and Lydia to come in because of what happened, but if we are going to get anywhere, we could really use their help.”

“ _Stiles_ ,” Allison hissed at him. “Can I talk to you please?”

He knew what she was going to say, but he had to let her say it. She had her own reasons for going against Scott’s presence in town, but in the end it wasn’t about how either of them felt about Scott _or_ Lydia, it was about getting rid of the bastard that was terrorizing people.

She held a grip on his arm as she whispered loudly to him in the corner, “ _Stiles_ , we do _not_ need his help. We don’t even know if there is a demon involved, so what would be the point?”

Stiles rolled his eyes. “The point is to be ready for anything. We don’t know what the hell is going on and Scott is good at what he does. Setting your past aside, you _know_ that, so I need you to not fight this, Allison. We are going to have enough problems convincing _them_ without me having to convince _you_ too.”

“I don’t need convincing, because we don’t need them,” Allison replied stubbornly.

“We might not, but I’d rather be safe than sorry at this point, Als. Look how many people have died already. This is our _job_. It’s not just about stopping whatever is out there, it’s about protecting people from it too.” He didn’t want more families going through what he and Allison had, all because they hadn’t bothered to use all of the resources available to them.

Allison glared at him, but he knew that he’d finally hit the right note with her. “Oh my God, _fine!_ If he comes anywhere near me I’m gonna shoot him in the knee!”

“I’ll let him know,” Stiles quirked the corner of his lip upward and turned back to the werewolves, who would have heard the entire exchange, but that didn’t really matter.

Laura nodded at him and looked over at Peter. “He’s right, you know. It’s about protecting the people of Beacon Hills and if Scott and Lydia can help us, we need to bring them in.”

Stiles couldn’t really bring himself to be surprised by her agreeing with him - she just seemed like the type that would. But then Isaac and the bulky black werewolf were chiming in and saying that they agreed as well and he was a bit floored. The blonde, Peter, and Derek were still against bringing in the two extra hunters, which made it a divide right down the middle of their pack. Stiles wondered if that was a usual occurrence for them or if he had brought up a subject that for once had their house divided - the thought made him a little sad. Laura nodded. “In the case of a split, it is ultimately the Alpha’s final decision - so we will be asking for the other hunters’ help. And we _will_ be treating them cordially,” she added, giving the other three a stern look.

Laura turned back to Stiles and Allison with a warm smile. “Okay then. How quickly can you get Scott and Lydia here?”

\-----

Scott stretched his arms in the air, yawning. “Man, riding in airplanes always makes me _so tired_. You coulda at least given me better company, dude.” He smirked, rolling his eyes and snatching Stiles up in a ridiculous bear hug, practically knocking the wind out of him as he squeezed him tightly to his chest.

Stiles blushed, shaking his head. “Man, shut up. It’s not my fault you can’t keep up with her.” He pushed Scott off of him, glancing over toward where Lydia was chatting away with Allison. 

“Yeah, because _that’s_ Lydia Martin’s problem. _Right_. You really need to pull your head outta your ass.” 

Scott was staring over at the two women too, but Stiles knew where he was looking. He rolled his eyes too. “Will you just give me my shit so I can check over it?”

Scott’s gaze whipped back over at Stiles, a look of true indignation written all over his face. “I have _never_ been so insulted in all my life, Stilinski. You’ll be lucky to get _any_ merchandise from me ever again.” 

“I’m pretty sure as long as the money is green you’re gonna keep selling.”

“Dude, I am _not_ that shallow! I can’t believe you would even sully my reputation that way!”

Of course Lydia and Allison chose that moment to walk over. “Your name is a smudge on the repertoire of all of us that call ourselves hunters, McCall.” Lydia said flatly, giving him a once over like he was an ugly bug she could do with seeing squashed. _Yeah_ , Lydia had never really liked Scott very much. It was really the only reason that Allison probably _did_ like her. Allison was smirking like the Cheshire Cat. 

“McCall is a very well-respected na-” Scott started to say.

Lydia was jumping on that before he had the chance to finish. “Oh, _Melissa_ McCall was a genius. It’s Scott McCall that rides on the skirt-tails of his mother’s talents.”

Stiles groaned. “Alright, I think that’s enough hunter politics for one visit. Thanks for coming, guys. We’ve got a lot of work to do, so can we leave the bickering for later?”

Lydia raised her eyebrows at Stiles, but shrugged. “Alright. Where are the werewolves? And if anyone in this podunk town tries to hit on me, there are gonna be some problems...”

 

“So _these_ are the two who are supposed to save us, then?” Peter sneered when all of them were settled into the backroom of the diner again.

“Charming fellow. Is he always this surly or is he just _that_ happy to meet us?” Scott asked without so much as thinking, Stiles was certain.

“Absolutely ecstatic,” Peter muttered and was the first to sit down and make himself look entirely disinterested almost at once.

Laura rolled her eyes and stepped forward, extending her hand out to Lydia. “Please ignore him, he’s just pissy because he doesn’t think we need the help. I’m Laura, I’m the Alpha of this pack. It’s a pleasure to meet you... both of you,” she added and nodded toward Scott, still holding her hand out toward Lydia who considered it for a moment before she finally took it stiffly in her own hand.

“Well, thank you for the _warm_ receiving. I’m certain we’ll get along fantastically,” Lydia commented, looking toward Peter, and Derek, who was staring the two of them down like he was ready to pounce at the first wrong move.

Scott was obviously more receptive to Laura’s handshake, smiling hugely. “Well, let’s get this shit ironed out, shall we? I’d like to eat before nightfall. Do we know what we’re dealing with?” He plopped down in a chair and looked toward Stiles and Allison.

Stiles shook his head and eyed the room once before speaking. “No, we don’t know what we’re up against yet, that’s why we wanted yours and Lydia’s help. _Something_ is murdering people and setting up the scenes to look like animal attacks. We obviously know better-”

Allison cut in then. “We spoke to the police yesterday and they said they found animal hair at the last scene. It’s obviously been planted, but that suggests a few things. For one, it’s not a totally mindless creature or we wouldn’t be seeing that type of calculation or forethought. It also means that there could be more than just the attacker-”

Peter grunted and cut her off. “That is an awful lot of _assuming_ that you seem to be doing. Where is the proof?”

Allison glared at him. “It is our _assumptions_ that keep us alive and help us solve all our cases, _Hale_. Can you say the same about yourselves so far, considering the body count that is piling up under your town’s name?”

“We know that we haven’t found anything yet, that’s why we’re willing to work with you. Snarking about how we haven’t done enough doesn’t help,” Derek said and Laura looked mildly surprised at his speaking up. Then, “We don’t know that your intentions are completely noble here, so don’t get too full of yourselves. What have you offered _them_ to get their help?” Yeah, that sounded more like the Derek they’ve dealt with so far.

Lydia turned an almost bored look toward Derek. “I agreed as a favor. Believe it or not, _we_ have a code and we honor our debts. We aren’t savage-”

“Thank you, Lydia,” Stiles cut in, giving her a stern look. “Lydia and Scott owe us for having been helped in the past. We aren’t offering them any incentives and we aren’t planning to shake your hand, then stab you in the back,” he said and stared Derek in the face as he did.

“Unless you give us a reason,” Allison added unhelpfully.

“ _Look_. We aren’t going to solve a goddamn thing if we keep arguing like this! We’re all fucking adults here, let’s _act it_ so we can save more people from that awful fate, can we?” Stiles was seriously pissed, glaring at both Allison _and_ Derek almost at once, which was a feat to manage considering they were blocked off on opposite sides of the room like a pair of gunslingers.

Laura nodded in agreement. “Stiles is right. Let’s adjourn for the evening, get some rest and come back tomorrow after we’ve had a chance to consider some possibilities and maybe come up with a game plan, shall we?” Laura looked at everyone in turn, but she turned a sterner look on her own pack.

Allison nodded, shrugging. “Sure, that’s probably a good idea. I can see we aren’t getting anything accomplished here.”

“Als. That’s enough, seriously,” Stiles groaned.

“Yeah alright. Let’s go,” Allison said and started from the room, Lydia right beside her and Scott jumping up to follow like the lovesick fool he was. He gave Stiles an apologetic look on his way through the door.

“Right. I’ll call you?” he asked Laura and she nodded.

“Sounds good. Let us know what you come up with and we’ll meet tomorrow to discuss it?”

“Yeah, same to you,” Stiles answered and headed to the door, glancing over once to see Isaac watching him closely as he left. He made it out the front doors of the diner before he heard his name being called behind him. Stiles turned and looked at him expectantly.

Isaac ran his hand through his hair, looking extremely uncomfortable. It was definitely not the douchey Isaac he’d seen yesterday during their meeting. “Um... I wanted to apologize for the way I acted yesterday - and for what I said about you. I-I was thrown off guard not knowing about you guys and I didn’t handle it very well...”

Stiles chewed on his lip a moment before responding. “I was a dick too, I guess... I’m sorry.” He rubbed his hand over his head. “I uh... I don’t think it’d be very smart for us to... y’know, with all this going on. And you obviously take some issue with hunters and I haven’t exactly had the best experiences in the past with werewolves, so... it probably wouldn’t be the best idea for us to...” he trailed off, not even sure what they would’ve possibly _done_ if Stiles had called him. Date? Fuck?

Stiles thought he saw disappointment momentarily in Isaac’s face, but it was gone in an instant, so it was possible he was misreading him. “Yeah, no... that makes total sense. I just wanted... we’re gonna be working together so I didn’t want you to think I was seriously an asshole like...like Derek. Laura was telling the truth about me... it’s a defense mechanism.”

For a second Stiles thought Isaac was saying that Laura had told the truth about Isaac being jealous. He shook that thought from his mind; hadn’t he _just_ said this was a bad idea. “Well, you’ve already seen me faint, I’m not the person to be judging too harshly.” He shrugged and offered a small smile.

Isaac smiled a little. “Wasn’t fainting,” he snarked and his smile grew wider, eyes bright as he looked at Stiles. Stiles couldn’t help but return the grin, especially after he had poked fun at what Stiles had said yesterday. _Fuck_ , he was seriously good looking. It was going to be difficult not to want to jump his ass, even if he _was_ a werewolf. “Guess I’m glad you were who you were, though, since I don’t have to lie to you - and you don’t have to lie to me, like we would’ve been doing otherwise.”

Stiles smiled knowingly. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. It can get a bit old lying about who I am all the time.”

Isaac laughed. “Malcolm Reynolds? Kinda obvious, don’tcha think?”

Stiles gaped at him for a moment. “ _Really_? You actually - no one has ever called us on it, honestly.”

Isaac still had that beautiful smile on his face. “Yeah, I love _Firefly_ and _Battlestar Galactica_.”

“You’re awesome, dude,” he said automatically. Stiles was swooning a little, he wasn’t afraid to admit it.

“Stilinski! Get your ass moving or we’re leaving you here!” Scott called from the jeep where the other three hunters were already sitting in wait.

Stiles’ face burned red and he smiled apologetically at Isaac. “Well, I’ll see you tomorrow sometime?”

“Mmhm. Um... well, bye.” Isaac blushed and turned around, entering the diner again.

Stiles was glaring daggers when he got into the jeep’s passenger seat. Allison smirked at him and he was afraid that she’d been telling them about yesterday while he was talking to Isaac. “Got a hot date, Stiles?”

He sank into the seat, groaning. “I fucking hate you,” he responded and the other three laughed.


	3. You Should Make Amends With You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quicker than last time, yeah? Yeah? Sorry for the delay guys, but rest assured I am not leaving this story to the wayside.

"So we're really gonna do this?" Scott asked as they sat around the tiny table in the motel room.

"Do what?" Stiles asked quizzically.

Lydia huffed. "Trust a bunch of slobbery canines, that's what! You really think they aren't going to turn on us the moment we turn our backs?"

Allison shrugged and looked at Stiles expectantly. He grunted. “No, I don’t. Laura’s not like that-”

Lydia scoffed at him. “Oh, Laura’s not like that? Stiles, she’s a werewolf. She’s an _Alpha_ and you just met her like four days ago. Are you _that_ head over heels that you can’t see-”

“I don’t like her like that, okay? That’s not what this is. I just _know_ and I’m usually right about these things.” Stiles tended to have feelings about things and people and he could tell that Laura wouldn’t ever turn on them - unfortunately he was not currently seated with people who grew up outside the job so they never would listen to him. Allison did, but when it came to trusting something they usually hunted, she tended to draw the line.

Allison looked at him with momentary sadness before steeling herself. “Stiles, we know you are usually right about this stuff, but you aren’t _always_ , and I just... I can’t see this ending well. Getting involved with them just isn’t a smart idea.”

“Look, I know why you’re nervous, alright? I know why _all_ of you are, but I need you to trust _me_. I wouldn’t lead you down this path if I didn’t think it was safe... if I didn’t think that it was the right decision. We _do_ need their help and they know what it means if we don’t catch this thing, so yeah... just stop fighting me and _help_ me.” Stiles was getting to the point where if he didn’t convince them soon, he’d end up doing this on his own and he didn’t want that. Regardless of their history and ‘hunter solidarity’, he was ultimately slave to their biases and he needed to get them past the obvious and thinking about what was actually important. He wanted this to _end_.

“Alright, dude. I got your back. I’m not gonna start sniffing butts or howling at the moon... but I’ll work with them if you think it’s gonna help us find and kill this motherfucker.” Scott grinned wide and crooked, clapping Stiles on the shoulder.

“Scott, you’re an idiot,” Allison said, though she sounded kind of fond for once. “Alright Stiles, you know that I’m gonna back you because I love you and you haven’t fucked me over yet, so I doubt you’d start now. But if one of them tries to kill us, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Oh, I think we _all_ warned you, lover boy. Steer clear of the werewolf dick, Stiles, it’s only gonna break your heart... and probably your neck,” Lydia chimed in with all the false sweetness she was capable of. It was scary how sincere she could sound while telling him to stay away from dick - he knew she was full of it, but it still made him blush.

“How would _you_ know, Lydia? Walked a little on the wild side yourself?” Scott raised his eyebrows at her suggestively.

“Ugh, McCall, you’re disgusting,” Allison leaned over and punched him hard in the shoulder. Scott made a weird whining sound and rubbed his shoulder tenderly.

“Fuck, Stiles, what’re you _feeding_ her? She’s like a goddamn boxer.”

“Try not to forget it the next time you attempt to touch my ass,” Allison sneered.

Scott held his hands in the air. “Yeah-yeah, I surrender dude, _shit_. So what’ve you guys found out so far?” He asked and looked over at Stiles. All three of them looked at Stiles expectantly, which he didn’t really understand considering Allison was a part of ‘you guys’ too. For some reason he was always expected to have all the answers, even when they didn't want to listen to them.

"Well, we know that the animal hair was planted, but who do you think did it? I don't think it's this _thing_ \- it never tried to cover its tracks before, so why would it now?" When Stiles had been told about his parents’ deaths, he had been brought to the scene to identify them. His parents were both lying dead inside of his mother’s store and the entire place was ransacked. Of course that made the police think it was a robbery gone south, though Stiles always thought that his father’s deputies knew that something more sinister had taken place because of the way they were murdered - a robber would have just shot them if things had taken a turn for the worse - but they never would admit that and the case remained unsolved. Stiles fingered the Cernunnos charm on his necklace as he thought of them again.

“I think that we might need to take a closer look at these policemen. Who would have an easier job planting hair on the bodies than _them?_ ” Allison asked, looking over at Stiles thoughtfully and watching him touch his necklace. It was a habit she knew well enough to realize what he was thinking about.

“Well... _you_ guys, apparently, if you’ve been getting in on those crime scenes so easily,” Scott mused. Lydia glared at him, not even bothering to make fun of him as his words weren’t worth her effort.

“Yeah, Scott, we’ve been planting fake evidence for _us_ to find. That makes _perfect_ sense,” Allison groaned at him.

Scott rolled his eyes. “Hey, you _asked_. Did you notice anything off about any of them when you were at the station?”

Stiles looked from Scott to Allison. “Their sheriff is a little off-balance, but I dunno if that really makes hi-”

“Fuck that, Stiles, he’s a total _nutcase_. All he ever does is yell, and he’s super twitchy...”

“I can get twitchy too. Doesn’t mean I’m working with a murderer and planting fake evidence everywhere I go.” Stiles realized that both of his statements were a little stupid considering that he did both of those things... a lot. Lydia looked at him like he was growing a second head and Scott laughed. “You know what I mean,” he added, annoyed.

“Well, think of it like this: the police already know that it’s not a mountain lion - the medical examiner _and_ the police don’t believe that a mountain lion is behind this. So why are they still pushing that theory?” Allison asked.

“They aren’t just gonna tell everyone the _truth_ ,” Lydia said.

Stiles nodded. “But I don’t think that all of them actually know the truth. Danny seemed genuinely convinced it was an animal attacking these people. I don’t think that they’ve all been told what the medical examiner said.”

“But the sheriff would know,” Scott added. “He’s the one in charge and the one the coroner would tell, right?”

“Yeah, which only further proves that he is hiding something,” Allison agreed.

“Allison, you think _everyone_ is hiding something,” Stiles groaned.

“That’s because everyone _is_.”

 

With Lydia and Scott there, Stiles found it difficult to stay in the room once talk finally turned to ‘catching up’. He wasn’t really interested in talking, mostly because he never had anything to catch people up on. His life was the same goddamn thing day in and day out - find something bad, take care of it, keep your head down, don’t get attached, move on. It was part of the hunter code they lived by, but it was a lonely life and he sometimes found himself wishing he could give it all up and stop chasing ghosts. Of course he never would and neither would Allison - not until they found what they were looking for.

Stiles scuffed his feet on the ground and walked around outside the motel, wandering aimlessly just to give himself something to do. He thought about the werewolves and about Isaac. He knew it would never turn into anything more than sex - if he even let it get _that_ far - because once the job was over, he would leave and he’d never see the man again. Granted he still kept hoping that this was finally the _one_ \- the job that ended it once and for all. If it _did_ and they survived, he honestly wasn’t certain _what_ they’d do after. Allison had always made it sound like she’d keep hunting no matter what, but he could tell she was tired and wanted an out just as much as he did. 

His thoughts shifted to Laura. He wanted to believe in her _so badly_ ; he wanted to believe that Laura really was like his mom, or that he was feeling this way toward her because his mom was trying to tell him that he needed to trust her. It sounded ridiculous, but it didn’t make him believe it any less. Laura wasn’t going to betray them, but that didn’t mean none of the others would. Something Stiles conveniently didn’t mention to the other hunters. They were paranoid enough as it was, no need to add to the dissent.

Stiles pulled his phone out and sent her a message without really thinking about it.

_**Stiles said:** I’m sorry we didn’t get anything accomplished today. It’s hard for them to let go of their training._

He almost jumped out of his skin when his phone started to ring instead of beeping back at him. He definitely hadn’t expected her to call him. “Uh, hello?”

“Hi Stiles. I’m not big on texting unless it’s something simple. Anyway... don’t blame yourself, I totally understand where they are coming from. I mean, if you can’t tell, some of us aren’t really letting go of _our_ biases either. It’s a hard concept for them when all we’ve ever seen is the barrel end of a hunter’s gun.” Laura’s voice was warm and soothing and Stiles wanted to wrap himself up into it like a blanket.

“I’m sorry, Laura. I’m sorry about your family... I would _never_ \- that’s not how we operate. There _is_ a code and Allison and I _do_ follow it.” Stiles didn’t know why he wanted to reassure her of his honor so badly. He couldn’t stand the thought of her thinking ill of him though.

“Stiles, I know that. These connections... they aren’t one way. I feel the same way about you that you do about me. I know it’s _weird_ , but I think it is gonna help us in the long run. Knowing that you wouldn’t betray me... well that helps _a lot_.” She sounded so fond and so _certain_.

“Has this happened to you before? Isaac said that he felt connected to you... does it happen a lot?” Stiles asked in honest interest.

“No, it doesn’t happen a lot. Like I said, I usually can’t calm anyone down besides those in my pack. It’s an Alpha-Beta connection. You’ve sort of taken on a Beta role without actually becoming a werewolf _or_ being in my pack and that is definitely... odd. Derek and Peter are worried because it’s not - well it’s not _normal_.” Laura paused for a moment and Stiles thought she might be finished, but she continued eventually. “You mustn’t think that it’s a bad thing though. Unorthodox or not, it might be the vital piece we need for our two packs to coincide without ripping each other apart. I understand Derek and Peter’s fears, but I’m not going to disregard something that might help us get rid of whatever this thing is.”

Stiles nodded, even though she couldn’t see him. “I don’t know _why_ I feel it, but it’s there and I can’t _stop_ feeling it. You-you remind me of my mom.” Holy shit, why did he just say that?

He heard Laura sigh. “I’m sorry about your parents, Stiles. I know that it may seem like the others are just interested in getting the attention off Beacon Hills, but we do genuinely care about this town and its people and we don’t want to see them come to harm. Our main goal is to keep these people safe, protect the territory, and live as normal a life as we can while we do it. And if this _is_ what killed your parents, Stiles, I will be honored to help bring you peace.”

“Um... thank you. I don’t know if that’s what it’ll bring me, but at least it’s some type of justice.” Stiles paused for a moment and then added, “I believe you. I know that you’re trying to do what’s best for your family and your town and I _don’t_ think you’d betray us, Laura, but... I don’t know about the others.”

“Well honestly? I don’t know about the others with _you_ either. I know it might seem a little irrational, but Derek and Peter do have a reason to distrust hunters. Derek more than any of us and if he is an asshole toward you, it’s because of that. He’s actually a very caring person, but he’s been warped from that experience and Peter tends to over-do it and spurn his hatred even further. But Derek believes you, Stiles, even if he doesn’t know how to show it. If _I_ trust you, Derek knows that there’s nothing to fear... but he can’t feel the same way about your companions and he probably never will.” 

Stiles definitely didn’t have ‘Derek Hale trusts me’ on his list of things he could believe, even with Laura telling him it. “I-I am sorry for whatever he went through, but I have a hard time believing that he is okay with me when he is constantly on edge around me.”

Laura actually laughed. “Oh sweetie... you two are kinda clueless, huh?”

“ _What?_ What do you mean?” Stiles wasn’t sure he’d like her answer.

“You’ve never experienced sexual tension before?” Laura laughed again.

“ _Holy **fuck**_ , we do _not_ have sexual tension! Why does everyone keep _saying_ that?”

“Because it’s true, hon.” He could tell she was trying to stifle laughter.

“I’m _not_ attracted to your brother! He is a total _dick_ to me! I-I’m attracted to _Isaac!_ ” Fuck, he didn’t want to talk about this - she was just as bad as Allison.

He could hear the smile in her voice. “I know that, sweetie. And he is attracted to you too... but so is Derek. And you’re attracted to Derek, you are just blinded to it because you two can’t do anything but _argue_.”

“ _Ohmygod_ Laura, do you _want_ me to be attracted to your brother or something? This is the creepiest conversation I’ve ever had! _Fuck_ , it doesn’t matter because nothing will happen between me and _anyone_ anyway.” Stiles didn’t know why he was so defensive, but he was pretty sure that his brain was attempting to explode at the thought of being connected to _Derek_ in that way.

“Right. Well, don’t worry about me being against it - I give you my blessing for Isaac _and_ Derek.”

“Holy _shit_... I don’t _want_ your blessing!”

\-----

Another body was found the next morning, with all of the usual evidence left behind. What wasn't very usual was that the body was found in an alleyway and this time the pack knew who it was.

"This isn't good," Laura said when Stiles and the other hunters met up with the pack, hovering on the outskirts of the crime scene.

"Who is it?" Allison asked curiously.

"It's Mr. Lahey - Isaac's dad," Derek said grimly, his face set in a hard line.

Stiles' head swiveled around to look at Isaac, who didn't seem to be acknowledging anything around him; he was obviously stunned. Stiles' frown gouged a deeper rift into his face. "Is he okay?" Stiles tilted his head toward Isaac.

"What do you think? His father's dead. Of course he's not-" the blonde wolf, who he now knew to be Erica, responded harshly.

“Stop it, Erica. He’s asking because he cares - he’s not being a dick,” Derek said and Stiles stared at him for a minute, wondering why he was sticking up for him when he was usually the first one to point out the flaws of what Stiles said. Erica pouted and returned to staring at Isaac while gripping tightly to the black werewolf’s hand, whom he was told was named Boyd.

“What’re we gonna do?” Boyd asked, looking toward Laura, his eyes drifting vaguely toward Stiles.

Laura tore her eyes from Isaac's back and he visibly slouched more. "We're going to find this thing and we're going to kill it," she responded vehemently.

 

Later when they had all piled into the back room of the diner (Peter excusing himself earlier on to do some work back at the house), silence fell over the lot of them. Not even the hunters seemed to have anything to say. Stiles sat in the booth next to Isaac, but he didn’t receive much of a response from him after his first couple of attempts and eventually fell silent along with the rest of them.

After about thirty minutes, Stiles couldn’t take it anymore. “Wanna get out of here?” he asked Isaac, who looked up, surprised, but nodded enthusiastically. “C’mon, let’s go.”

Allison was on her feet in seconds and even Laura looked a little unnerved at the prospect, but Stiles waved them off. “We’ll be fine. How much trouble could we possibly get into?” _A lot_ , was the true answer, but he ignored that small dissenting voice and led Isaac out of the diner. When they were walking toward the Jeep, Stiles tossed him the keys. “Wherever you wanna go, dude.” Stiles was surprisingly unworried by the prospect of letting Isaac go wherever he wanted as he took his place in the passenger seat. He knew that Isaac wouldn’t want to just leave town, but allowing him the choice to drive around and at least get that _feeling_ of freedom would do him wonders. Lord knew that Stiles had done his fair share of it when his parents died. Maybe not the best comparison since after he started driving, he never stopped...

Isaac drove them around for the better part of 20 minutes, and Stiles began shifting in his seat when he thought that maybe he _did_ want to get out of town, but then they began to slow and Isaac took a winding side road and eventually pulled them up to a sight Stiles hadn’t seen the likes of in quite a while.

“Holy shit, dude,” he gaped, getting slowly out of the Jeep while trying to keep his eyes swiveling at the sight in front of him. A cliff that overlooked both the small town and the expanding forest all around was their rest stop and the scene was making Stiles short of breath for the sight of it. “This is amazing!”

Isaac walked up next to Stiles, surveying the scene along with him. “Mmyeah. My brother used to bring me out here whenever my dad was having one of his episodes. Sometimes we’d pitch a tent and just stay all night, reading ghost stories and playing board games. It was fun.”

Stiles, of course, wasn’t entirely sure what Isaac meant by ‘episodes’, but he tried to squash the questions for now. It wasn’t his place to pry into Isaac’s homelife. “That sounds awesome, man.”

“Yeah. Yeah, it was,” Isaac replied and they both fell silent, staring over the cliff at the land below. Eventually Stiles pulled himself up onto the hood of the Jeep and just stared. After a few minutes, Isaac joined him. “I haven’t been home in years. The first time I saw him again, he was lying on the ground in that alleyway...” he trailed off, and Stiles couldn’t tell by his voice if he was choked up about that or just stating a fact.

Stiles reached over tentatively and touched Isaac’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, Isaac. I might not know exactly what you’re feeling, but I know... well, I just know.” He had no idea what Isaac’s relationship with his father was, but if he hadn’t seen him for years, probably not the best. That didn’t change the fact that losing a parent wasn’t easy.

Isaac looked over at him, his blue eyes bright and questioning, then nodded slowly. “Yeah. Thanks. I mean... I’m sorry it happened to you, just- it’s nice to have someone who understands, but doesn’t know every damn detail.” He pushed out a short laugh. “The minute I’m alone with Laura it will start- all the questions and then worry and... I don’t wanna deal with that for a while. She means well, obviously, and she’s a great person, but I-”

“I get it.” Stiles nodded, his hand sliding down Isaac’s arm a bit before he placed it back in his own space. He did, for the most part. He would’ve given anything to have someone like Laura around the past few years though. Sure he had Allison, but she didn’t exactly exude motherly tendencies. He was burning with questions, of course, but Isaac had kind of made it clear he wasn’t in the mood to discuss, so he kept them to himself. Stiles put his hands behind his head and leaned against the windshield, looking up at the sky above them as silence fell between them and there was nothing but the sounds of the forest filling his ears.

He wasn’t certain, but he might have dozed off. The next thing he realized, he was jolting a bit at the sudden movement next to him. Isaac was looking every which way, his face a mask of concentration and slight worry. Stiles only realized after a few moments that Isaac had a hold of Stiles’ arm as he looked around them. Finally his head swiveled back to Stiles and he whispered, “We need to go.” Isaac hopped off the Jeep’s hood and let go of Stiles’ arm at the last possible second, a warmth tingling against his skin even as the hairs on the back of his neck went on end. 

Stiles flung himself from the hood and into the passenger side of the jeep just as Isaac closed his door, starting up the car and backing out. Stiles dug into the glovebox and removed his spare gun, loading and cocking it in the span of a few seconds. 

“Fuck!” Isaac said suddenly, and Stiles thought he was protesting the presence of the gun, but it didn’t take long for him to find out the truth. A huge, dark figure was lumbering toward the clearing from the woods to their right, cracking branches and making an unfathomable amount of noise when its feet hit the ground. Stiles counted four, but he was going on instinct at that moment as he still couldn’t see anything but darkness moving through darkness. 

“Go go go!” Stiles yelled, cranking the handle to roll the window down enough to get the barrel through the crack. Isaac slammed his foot on the gas and the Jeep lurched backward, sending Stiles right into the dashboard and losing the line-up he had on the target. “ _Fucking_...” but he didn’t finish, he needed to get the gun pointed and firing _now_. He pushed his leg up against the dash so that he was shoving his body back into the seat and started to line up his shot once again.

Stiles got two shots off before Isaac was swinging the vehicle around to face frontways and peeling out of the clearing. He couldn’t be certain, but he thought he might’ve hit it. The thing chasing them cleared the edge of the woods just as Isaac pulled back on the road and swerved a bit before straightening the vehicle out and gunning it out of there. Stiles thought he’d glimpsed a tail in that span.

He flattened himself back in his seat, yanking his seatbelt on, gun still in hand. 

“Dude, you mind?” Isaac looked warily over at Stiles, apparently making a good assumption as to what ammunition Stiles had loaded in the gun.

Stiles looked wildly confused for a moment before he looked at the gun and nodded. “Oh, sorry.” He clicked on the safety and left the gun in his hand, though he rolled the window back up. “What the _fuck_ -”

“I think you hit it,” Isaac said, in no sort of reply to Stiles’ question. He glanced over at Stiles quickly, his eyebrows raised in what might have been surprise. “You’re a good shot.” He sounded impressed, strangely enough. Isaac finally yanked his seatbelt on one-handed.

“Thanks? My dad, he was a sheriff. He taught me how to shoot.” Apparently that wasn’t what Isaac expected to hear because he looked over at Stiles once again, confusion written all over his face. Stiles shrugged. “I wasn’t always a hunter, y’know.”

Isaac shook his head. “Yeah, sorry, I just... sorry. And no, I don’t know what that was. It-”

“-wasn’t a werewolf?” Stiles finished, though it was less of a question than he thought. “I kinda figured as much.” After what felt like the fifth time of Isaac looking sideways at Stiles, he raised his hands. “Dude, _what?_ ”

“You’re just- you’re not what I expected, I guess.”

“Is that a good thing?” Stiles questioned.

“Yeah, totally. It’s good, I promise.” Isaac smiled and then kept his eyes on the road until they had returned to town.

 

Stiles’ head was pounding as the others speculated and argued over the information he and Isaac brought back with them. The sodden mood from Isaac losing his father had been replaced by panic and Isaac was probably glad for the change. Stiles would rather go back to the silence at this point, though. 

When his phone rang he jumped at the chance to answer it, not caring if it was death calling for him at this point. “Hello?”

“Agent Reynolds?”

“Oh yeah, this is he,” he replied and waved his arm around to get the others to quiet down.

“This is Deputy Mahealani from Beacon Hills PD. We got the results back from the lab on the animal hairs.”

Stiles’ eyebrows raised and everyone had quieted and was looking at him now. It took him a moment to recognize that the werewolves could hear both sides of the conversation. “Let me guess, mountain lion?”

“No, sir. The lab said that the hair contained traces of Borax and had been well maintained and cleaned thoroughly.”

“Wha- what does that-”

“It was hair from a taxidermy. The animal wasn’t alive at all. At least, not in the better part of recent years.”

Stiles’ eyes narrowed further. “What kind of animal?”

“A wolf.”

Stiles could barely hang up the phone in time before the werewolves were exploding with talk, while the hunters looked at him in confusion. “It was a wolf. Taxidermy. Someone just shaved it off of a stuffed wolf.”

Stiles looked over at the others. “Do you know of anyone in town with a stuffed wolf?”

Laura nodded. “Only one person in town. Matt Daehler. He owns the hotel you’re staying in.”

Stiles groaned. “Not Manager Matt...”

 

“I don’t think you should ask him,” Stiles insisted as they got dressed in the hotel room.

“Oh, because he just _loves_ you so much?”

“I wasn’t glaring him down like a homicidal maniac!”

“Oh please,” Allison scoffed, looking away from Stiles.

“He genuinely feared for his life! While still hoping that you’d fall on your knees and suck his cock.”

“Really, Stiles?” Lydia said, though she was still reading the book in her hands.

“Well _obviously_ he hoped for the cock-sucking first,” Stiles added.

Allison huffed and dragged him off the bed by his elbow. “C’mon, we’re _going_. Stop being so ridiculous.”

“I hate this suit!” Stiles whined and tugged at his collar as they left their room and headed for the front desk. Matt was there, but that was probably because they’d just gotten back a few minutes ago and he had been staring down Allison’s ass. 

“Hello Matt,” Allison greeted him as an old friend even though she hated his guts. “You’re Matt Daehler, correct? The owner of this fine establishment?” If there was contempt in her voice when she said the last, she hid it well enough.

Matt eyed them warily, but of course he looked angrier when he was looking in Stiles’ direction. Go figure. “Yes, that’s who I am. Am I suddenly a suspect in the murders because I said it wasn’t an animal?” he asked with too much sass for Stiles’ liking.

“What?” she trilled a fake laugh that made Stiles snort. “No, of course not. But we do have a question that relates to it, actually. The police tested the hair found at the scenes. Do you know what they found?” Allison was using her ‘get what I want’ voice, which was a mixture of sweet, sexy, and deadly.

“Not being a member of the police department, I can’t say I do.” He sneered at Stiles. “You’re going to tell me, though, right?”

Stiles squared his shoulders, sneering back a little and taking that question for himself out of spite. “They found wolf hair, Matt. Hair that had been treated for taxidermy. Word is the only stuffed wolf in town is owned by...” he trailed off, pointing his pen at Matt.

“Guilty,” Matt replied snottily, raising his hands in the air palms out, then holding both his wrists out toward them. “Better take me in, I’ve obviously been on a murder spree.”

“How many people have access to the wolf, Matt?” Allison asked, her voice a little on edge. She _really_ disliked this guy and was having a hard time keeping her cool now. Stiles wanted to see how long it took for her to erupt.

“Just me and whoever I invite back to my place,” he replied cooly.

Allison didn’t like the answer, of course. “Do you invite _a lot_ of people to your place?”

He raised his eyebrows. “Are you asking me how many people I’ve slept with, Agent?”

Stiles put his hand on Allison’s shoulder just as she hit the edge and was about to go ballistic on him. “Okay, thanks for your cooperation, Manager Matt. If we have any other questions, I’m sure you’ll be just as helpful. You wouldn’t mind us coming by your place sometime to check out that wolf, would you?”

“Yeah, I would, actually,” he replied hatefully. “But if it’s going to get you off my back, whatever.”

Stiles nodded curtly and continued to push Allison away from the front desk. She was absolutely fuming by the time they were back in their room. “I am going to tear that jerk a new asshole! I _hate_ his stupid, little face!”

Stiles was already halfway out of his suit at this point. He started to unbutton his shirt before he realized that Lydia was still in the room and was currently eying him with interest. He flushed from the neck all the way down his chest, untucking the shirt and plopping down on the bed. “What did he say?” she asked them.

“Nothing besides that he’s a sleezy, disgusting-”

“He said we could see the wolf, though he’s not happy about cooperating,” Stiles broke in.

“Do you want me to kick the dude’s ass?” Scott asked, looking over at Allison.

“You really think that I need _you_ to do that for me, Scott? I’m more than capable-”

Scott raised his hands in the air in self-defense. “Retracting question. Sorry I asked.”

“I’m gonna go call Laura,” Stiles said, jumping up and fleeing from the room, leaving Lydia to play peacemaker this go-around.

“Hey, Laura?” Stiles asked when she answered the phone.

“Stiles, hi. How are you?” Even when things were not going well, she still sounded happy to hear from him. He felt himself calming already.

“Good, I guess. We uh, we talked to Matt.”

“Oh? How did that go?” Laura asked, bemused.

“Well, he’s still an asshole, but he said we could see the wolf. Guess we’ll go by there tomorrow and check it out. If it _is_ his wolf they are pulling hairs from, he’s going to deny knowing anything about it. And of course being involved in any way.” Stiles hadn’t thought about this, actually, but he knew even after saying it that it was the truth of the matter.

“Probably. He’s never been the most - amicable of people around here. Be that as it may, I’m not sure that he has the brains to be involved, if I’m honest.”

Stiles laughed. He couldn’t help it. “Yeah, I can see what you mean. Well, he isn’t stupid, but I don’t think he is involved with some supernatural force. Though he _did_ say that he didn’t think it was animals...” Stiles mused, talking more to himself than Laura right then.

“What do you mean?”

“I asked him a while back what he thought of the ‘animal attacks’ and he said he didn’t think it was an animal. He said ‘they don’t attack with that much precision.’ But how does he know about the preciseness? It hasn’t been released to the public.” Stiles had mulled this over before, but he hadn’t had much time to really _think_ about it too much with all that was going on.

“He could have just meant the constant attacks? Repetitiveness, timing, any number of things...” Laura suggested, though she didn’t sound convinced.

“Yeah, or Matt has connections in the police department that we don’t know about,” Stiles said.

Laura sounded tired. “Maybe.”

“How are y’all doing?” he asked, totally switching gears at the sound of her voice.

“Okay, I guess. With what happened to you and Isaac and then finding out about the wolf hairs, we didn’t have much time to dwell. But I think it’s setting in again. Isaac is...”

“Does he seem okay? Should he keep helping on this? Maybe he needs a break.”

“He’s going to be fine. He’s a lot like me - we don’t like to think about things too much. He would rather be involved than to think about it, y’know? By the way, I wanted to thank you for taking him out today. It was good for him.”

Stiles shrugged a little. “Of course. I mean, I know it’s what I wanted when I found out about my parents, so I just... I figured that without really knowing me like he did y’all, it’d be better.”

Laura ‘hmm’ed into the phone. “Yes. He’s been avoiding me because he doesn’t want to talk to me about it.” It sounded like a question instead of a statement. Stiles didn’t know if he should betray that information to Laura or not.

“He might’ve mentioned something about you?” Stiles offered lamely.

“Okay. I guess I should have expected it. I know he’ll come to me when he’s ready, it’s just - hard. I want to be there for him, y’know?” She sounded more like a mother than he’d ever heard before. How did someone who was barely older than the rest of them take to a mothering role like that?

“He knows. I promise you that he knows you’re there and he loves you, like _a lot_. I’ve seen it.” 

“You know that you’ve only known us less than a week, right?”

“It’s not difficult to see, Laura.” He might not know any of them well (not even Isaac, though he’d thought about what sex would be like with the dude), but he knew love when he saw it. He could see it in Scott’s eyes, when he talked about Allison. He could see it in Allison’s, when she denied all her feelings for Scott, he had always known that it wasn’t in Lydia’s eyes when she looked at _him_...

“Oh Stiles. I have a bad feeling. This is going to get worse for all of us before it gets better.”

“I know exactly what you mean.”

 

Stiles only went back into the hotel room to change. Scott was buying stuff online and Allison and Lydia were talking about - _something_ \- so he left again, allowing himself to wander even though he knew it wasn’t the smartest idea to go on his own. He at least brought his concealed weapons along.

He’d only been walking a few feet when his phone buzzed in his pocket. It was a text message from a number he didn’t recognize. 

_**Unknown said:** Thanks for helping out Isaac today. I know I come off as an asshole, but- well we appreciate it._

It wasn’t signed, but he knew that Derek had sent it. Stiles punched the number into his address book under Derek Hale and subtitled it _Mostly an Asshat_ , before he opened a new message to reply. He couldn’t really figure out how to respond without being sarcastic, so he went with simple.

_**Stiles said:** You’re welcome, Derek._  
_**Derek said:** For a hunter, you’re not a complete waste of space._  
_**Stiles said:** Your complementing skills need a little work._  
_**Derek said:** I wasn’t giving you a compliment._  
_**Stiles said:** Apparently._  
_**Stiles said:** For an asshat, you’re not an utter tool._  
_**Derek said:** That doesn’t even make sense._  
_**Stiles said:** It does if you aren’t a tool._  
_**Derek said:** This conversation is over._  
_**Stiles said:** And it was going so well!_

Stiles was actually smirking down at his phone as he walked. So much for holding back on the sarcasm.

_**Derek said:** I’m taking my compliment back._  
_**Stiles said:** You said it wasn’t a compliment!_  
_**Derek said:** It isn’t now._  
_**Stiles said:** You’re so sweet, Hale! I’m swooning._  
_**Derek said:** Don’t you have something useful you could be doing?_  
_**Stiles said:** Don’t YOU?_  
_**Derek said:** I regret ever texting you._

There was a lapse in there near back-and-forth messaging, and Stiles thought that maybe it was over. Then he received another message.

_**Derek said:** How did you know it was me?_  
_**Stiles said:** Your manly aura was just bursting through your digital communication._  
_**Derek said:** How can people even stand to talk to you?_  
_**Stiles said:** My incredible charm and unmatched wit, I suppose._  
_**Derek said:** Has anyone ever told you that you’re delusional?_  
_**Stiles said:** Everyday, Derek. Every stinkin’ day._

Stiles looked up and almost ran face-first into the looming werewolf, Peter Hale. “ _Holy fuck, dude!_ ” he screamed in fright, jumping visibly as he put on the brakes and refrained from face-planting into Peter’s body.

“Stiles. Enjoyable conversation?” Peter asked cordially.

“Dude! Why would you not say something? Why were you just-just _looming_? Why are you here?” Stiles’ hand twitched and he slowly slid his phone back in his pocket, fingering the outline of the holster through his jean pocket. You didn’t need a scientist to know that Peter didn’t like them and Stiles wasn’t fond of the werewolf either. He found his presence unnerving. 

“Am I not allowed to stroll around the neighborhood too?” Peter asked.

“Yeah, sure dude, whatever. Do you want something?”

“I saw you and thought I’d say hello. Wouldn’t want you to think I was rude, now would I?”

“Certainly wouldn’t want _that_ ,” Stiles scoffed under his breath.

“You know... I like you, Stiles.”

Stiles gaped. “Uh - what?”

“You’re smart, resilient, you think about your actions and the actions of those around you before making a move- I like you.”

“Oka-”

“I just don’t want you to get the wrong impression here. I don’t want you to think that just because you’re intelligent, that you can outwit me. I’m always going to be one step ahead of you.”

Stiles raised his eyebrows. “Are we in competition for something that I’m not aware of?” He felt his phone buzz under his fingers, but he didn’t take it out to check it.

Peter shook his head a little, a small smile on his face. “Oh, I think you know quite well that we’re competing. Laura may be fooled by your sarcastic wit and slightly-better-than-average brain capacity, but I’m not. And when push comes to shove, she’s going to listen to me before she listens to you. I’m older than the lot of you, I have more experience, _and_ I’m family. You can’t deny the connection we have.”

Stiles was gripping his phone tightly, a sneer on his face. “Yeah, well, you can’t deny _our_ connection either, Peter. Laura and I are connected for a _reason_.” Boy did he want to believe that.

“Some things don’t have a reason, a fate, or any kind of grand design. Some things are just there to make you weaker. You should remember that, Stiles.” He stepped to the side and started walking. “Might want to answer that; someone _desperately_ wants to speak with you.” Peter walked a few more feet behind Stiles and then was gone in a flash of werewolf speed. Of course.

Stiles didn’t even read the message Derek had sent, he just typed out and sent his own quickly.

_**Stiles said:** Dude, your uncle is a dick._

Five seconds later his phone was ringing. Stiles answered it in confusion.

“What are you talking about, Stiles?” Derek barked at him.

“Hello to you too, Derek.”

“ _Stiles_.”

“Nothing, _chill_. He just stopped me in the middle of the street to tell me that I am not as smart as he is and that he is going to win in our epic battle over Laura’s allegiance that I wasn’t aware was happening until now.” Stiles rolled his eyes as he continued walking again, scuffling his feet as he walked.

“Could you pick your feet up? I can barely hear you while you’re dragging your feet like that,” Derek complained.

Stiles groaned. “Stupid werewolves,” he muttered.

“My uncle just showed up outside your motel?”

“Well, it’s not _right_ in front of the hotel, but I’m not far. I was just walking around and I looked up and there he was like a creepy stalker.”

“Stiles, listen. Whatever you do, stay away from Peter, okay?”

“Um, you do realize that is your uncle you’re talking about, right? He’s sort of in your pack, carries around the same surname-”

“Stiles. This isn’t a joke, alright? Peter is dangerous.” Derek sighed. “ _No_ , not just because he’s a werewolf, but that doesn’t help. He never took the death of our family well and ever since then he’s been... off. If he approaches you like that again, tell me or Laura, okay?”

“If he’s such a hazard, why are you keeping him around?” Stiles asked in confusion. What exactly was Derek trying to warn him of without actually saying anything at all?

“Because if we dispelled him, the repercussions would be worse than having him near where we can keep an eye on him. Just... don’t go near him unless we’re all there too. Promise me.” Derek sounded genuinely worried and it was _strange_.

“Yeah. Yeah, alright, I promise, Derek. Uh... thanks, I guess.”

“Be careful out there. You almost got attacked once already today.” Derek hung up without saying anything else. 

Stiles just stared at his phone. It took him a second to register that Derek had been referring to the incident he and Isaac had had and not a few moments ago with Peter. Either way, he definitely felt less safe than he had before, which wasn’t a large measure of safety to begin with.


	4. If Only for Better Health

Stiles and Allison had another nightmare that night. It was apparently a new running theme that they try to murder each other in them, because this time it was Stiles who ended up shooting Allison between the shoulderblades when her back was turned. For once, it was Stiles that climbed into _Allison’s_ bed. He wrapped his arms around her, kissed her head, and told her he loved her and he would never hurt her. Allison just nodded and snuggled back against his chest in contentment.

It wasn’t until Stiles had almost fallen asleep that Allison asked quietly, “Do you think it’s going to happen? That something will make us-” she didn’t finish the question.

Stiles sighed inwardly, but tried to push out a small, amused laugh. “Something make Allison _Argent_ do something she doesn’t want to? I’d like to see the day,” he replied and that lie satisfied the both of them enough to go back to sleep.

 

“What are _we_ gonna do?” Scott whined, looking uneasily at Lydia and longingly toward the bathroom where Allison was. 

Stiles rolled his eyes. “Occupy your time with work. Scope the place out. Talk to people. Do what we _hired_ you for,” he replied. 

“ _Technically_ -” Scott began to protest but he was cut off.

“McCall! Just do your damn job and stop complaining!” Allison said loudly from the bathroom. Lydia and Scott both raised their eyebrows expectantly at Stiles, but he just shook his head. Nightmare mornings often found Allison in a perfunctory mood and snapping was definitely a highlight of that. He wanted to ask Lydia about their dreams, but he’d have to wait until they were well out of earshot and alone to venture into that territory.

Everyone was quiet after Allison’s outburst and she and Stiles were on the road to Matt’s house in record time. “I don’t think he’s that stupid,” Stiles said, looking over at Allison for a brief moment before he put his eyes back on the road.

“Are we referring to the same Matt?” she asked incredulously.

“Just because he’s a creepy fucker doesn’t mean he’s an idiot. You can’t run a business and be a total tool.”

Allison scoffed. “Uh yes, you totally can. But even disregarding _that_ , why was he the only one to say that they weren’t animal attacks?” 

“I don’t know. It ain’t like we’ve really interviewed a lot of people so far. There could be loads of people who are saying... that...” Stiles trailed off as they pulled up to Matt’s residence, currently occupied by three police vehicles and about six officers milling around in front of the house. Stiles spotted Deputy Mahealani and Sheriff Finstock almost immediately, and Deputy Whittemore not long after. 

As they got out of the Jeep, Danny was already approaching them with a welcoming smile. He clapped Stiles on the shoulder before pulling back and looking cowed, apparently feeling out of line suddenly. He cleared his throat. “Agents,” he nodded to both of them, giving Allison a warm look. “Thought we might see you here today.”

“Can’t really say the same about y’all,” Stiles replied with a sheepish smile. “Not that it’s bad, just unexpected.”

“Well, you aren’t the only ones who can figure these things out, sir. We do know this town fairly well.” Danny seemed to be holding back some annoyance in those words.

Allison nodded knowingly. “We don’t doubt it, Deputy, and we’re glad for the backup. I have to admit that I wasn’t 100% comfortable going in there just the two of us.”

Danny smiled and tipped an imaginary hat at her. “Then I’m happy to be of service, ma’am.”

He walked back to join the sheriff and Stiles leaned close to Allison and said quietly, “You think it’s Danny.”

“I never said that!” she moaned, affronted.

“You’re thinking it.”

Allison scoffed. “I just want to know why such a nice man would be making excuses for someone like Whittemore. It doesn’t add up.”

“Like I said-”

“Let’s just go,” Allison cut over him.

 

“Matt Daehler, we have a warrant to search-”

“Well c’mon then!” Matt offered a sweeping arm into his house, sounding completely wrecked. He sputtered a little and almost fell over when he moved. He was either drunk or high, though Stiles was banking on the former since that was still legal and he’d known the cops would be showing up.

Loud music was playing from the living room and as they ushered in through the front door, they saw three women dancing and drinking in front of the television. Allison rolled her eyes immediately. “Where’s the wolf, Matt?” she asked with annoyance.

“Agentttt Thrace. My, are you looking stunning to-”

“Back off. Tell us where the wolf is and treat her with some _respect_.”

Stiles’ eyes went wide and he looked back and forth between Danny and Allison, who looked just as stunned as Stiles that Danny had jumped to her defense.

“ _Whoa_ , chill out, bro. Sorry for macking on your woman, didn’t know that-”

Danny was up in Matt’s face in seconds, whispering something indistinct, but they could see Matt’s face falling immediately. When Danny moved away, Matt looked over at Allison and apologized profusely, then showed them the way to the wolf and walked out of the room.

Allison placed a hand on Danny’s shoulder. “Thank you, Deputy. That was very magnanimous of you.”

Danny smiled and nodded. “Don’t stand for disrespect is all, ma’am.”

“You’re a lovely person, Danny.” Allison smiled genuinely, and Stiles saw her resolve falter. She really did appreciate what he’d done and it was probably the closest thing to honest and revealing he’d seen from Allison in a long time. It was nice.

“Alright well, let’s get this party started, yeah?” Stiles said, trampling as much around Matt’s place as he could, knocking things over and just generally making as big of a mess as he could with Matt’s things. “Y’all want to do the honors of testing the wolf hair? We’ll see if we can find a place that shows it was tampered with.” 

Stiles and Allison knelt on either side of the wolf’s body, examining every part of it with a fine-tooth comb, looking for any imperfections. Finally they found a strange looking patch of fur under its belly, where it looked like it hadn’t grown any hair or it had been cut or ripped off. Knowing how much people paid to get these things made, Stiles highly doubted it had been that way when it was made. “Think we found it, boys,” Allison stated and had evidence come over and take high resolution photos of the wolf’s underbelly. Stiles and Allison continued looking for anything out of the ordinary in the room.

“Hey, come look at this,” Allison said from her spot near the window. Stiles walked over and saw what she was referring to immediately. “It looks like someone forced this window open. The lock is broken.” More photos for evidence, more written reports. It was looking suspiciously like someone had broken in to take the hairs, knowing that Matt had the wolf on hand. It seemed to be common knowledge around town, anyway. 

All in all, it was a pretty telling experience. They left not long after, the lab guys off immediately to check the hairs they’d collected and see if they matched the ones from the crime scenes. They were all mentally crossing Matt off the list just because of his ritual stupidity and asshattery (as Stiles referred to it).

 

Stiles shared all of the information they’d gathered at the meeting that afternoon with the pack. 

“We shouldn’t rule him out. He could have just set it up to throw us off his trail,” Peter said.

“Right now, we aren’t ruling _anyone_ out,” Laura agreed. “Look. Tonight I want patrols all over the town. We need to find this thing and we need to put it down as soon as possible. We’re going to split up in teams. Peter, you’re with me, and we should take a hunter with us too…” Laura looked at the four of them expectantly. 

Stiles leaned forward to volunteer, but Allison pushed him back. “I’ll go with you. Give us a chance to get to know one another better, girl to girl, yeah?” she sneered.

“Right, okay, sounds great,” Laura replied, still all smiles and not phased one bit. Stiles sniggered behind his hand at Allison’s attempt to throw Laura off that had failed miserably. He would pay money to see the two of them interacting one-on-one. “Scott and Lydia, you two go with Boyd and Erica. We’re giving you the larger stretch since there are four of you. You can split into two vehicles if you want. Stiles, that leaves you with Derek and Isaac. You up for it?” 

Stiles couldn’t miss her amusement even if he was blind. She had done that on purpose, he knew that she had. Even in these serious situations, Laura always had to interject something to amuse herself. He’d be angry if he didn’t do the same thing himself. “I’ll be fine,” he gritted out, distinctly keeping his eyes off Derek and Isaac. 

“Alright. The police will be patrolling tonight as well, so if you run into any of them just keep it casual. We don’t want them following us while we’re trying to track this thing. If _anyone_ gets wind of something foul, you alert the rest of us immediately. We’ll have walkies, so use them. Keep your police scanners on and listen for anything out of the ordinary from the PD too. Any questions?”

“You’re not going to make my car stink, are you?” Lydia asked, side-eying the werewolves she was assigned to work alongside.

“Keep your panties on, princess. You might learn a thing or two tonight,” Erica responded snottily and Laura adjourned after that, knowing where things were headed.

 

_**Allison said:** R u gonna be ok w/them? _  
_**Stiles said:** It’s not a big deal, Als, I’ll be fine._  
 _ **Allison said:** I’ll rescue u if u need me. K? Bros before hos _  
_**Stiles said:** There’s so much wrong with what you just said._

After a few minutes of receiving no answer, Stiles sighed and stuffed his phone back into his pocket. Allison had been texting him a lot since they all split up into their respective groups, and he had a feeling that wouldn’t be the last he heard from the others. At least Lydia and Scott were together, for whatever that was worth.

“Your hunter friends afraid that we might eat you?” Derek asked from the driver’s seat. There was amusement in his voice - he apparently thought that was a pretty good joke. It was sad, really.

Stiles threw him a bone and laughed half-heartedly. Isaac looked back at him and rolled his eyes to which Stiles just shrugged. “No, not that, really. I suppose they are just checking up to make sure we’re all okay.” Isaac still hadn’t turned around, so Stiles stuck his tongue out at him. Isaac grinned and winked back before facing front again. Stiles could feel his face flush and cleared his throat to try and ignore it. “So uh… anything so far?”

“I haven’t seen anything. No one else has reported anything either. What did you guys say you saw when you were on the cliff?” Derek asked them, looking over at Isaac next to him as they drove slowly down one of Beacon Hills’ many streets.

“Not a lot. We started driving out of there before it had cleared the tree line,” Isaac said, glancing back at Stiles.

“I shot at it, but yeah, wasn’t a lot to see through the woods besides a black figure. I think it had a tail, but I could just be imagining it, honestly,” Stiles assessed.

Isaac shook his head. “I’m pretty sure you hit it. If you can make _that_ shot, then it definitely had a tail,” Isaac said encouragingly.

Stiles smiled and his cheeks warmed even more. “Thanks. Do y’all really think we’re gonna find it just by driving around town?”

Derek shrugged. “Hard to say.”

“Yeah, guess it is,” Stiles parroted.

_**Scott said:** Ru suckin face w/Isaac?_  
 _ **Stiles said:** Fuck you, dude. How’s it going with Allison these days? _  
_**Scott said:** Touche. Siriusly man u gonna hit dat?_  
 _ **Stiles said:** Have you been looking at internet memes again?_  
 _ **Scott said:** No. Y?_  
 _ **Stiles said:** Nevermind. No, I’m not gonna ‘hit dat’. Things are too fucked up right now, man, and what do you think Allison would say if I fucked a werewolf?_  
 _ **Scott said:** Who gives a shit wat Allison says bout it? U dont answer 2 her._  
 _ **Stiles said:** I’ll let her know you say that._  
 _ **Scott said:** I ain’t scared of her_  
 _ **Stiles said:** Bullshit_

Stiles sat in the backseat texting Scott as the night wore on and it seemed that nothing of note was going to happen. While he was in the middle of responding to Scott’s latest message, he received another text.

_**Isaac said:** Hey. Wanna hang out later?_  
 _ **Stiles said:** Are you seriously texting me from the front seat?_  
 _ **Isaac said:** You want me to ask you out in front of Derek?_  
 _ **Stiles said:** You’re asking me out? Via text message?_

Unfortunately, Stiles never received an answer to that message. Both Derek and Isaac’s faces perked up at some invisible force and Stiles felt the change in the air palpably. He had no idea what it was, what had changed, but he could _feel_ that it had in his bones. Derek’s foot stepped on the brake, knocking them all forward in their seats from the force of the stop. When they were sitting upright again, Derek and Isaac were both wolfed out.

Stiles would never be able to accurately describe what happened in the car that night. The closest he’d ever come was to say that Isaac and Derek’s hearts literally _broke_. They began howling in unison the most mournful song Stiles had ever heard in his life. He could feel the pain in their song, feel the despair, the destitution, the sheer _loss_ they were experiencing through that wavering tune. He couldn’t bring himself to stop them, couldn’t even bring himself to _move_ \- he was paralyzed by the song of wretchedness they sang until the very last note.

When they did finally stop, they were both crying and it looked like they were in the worst pain of their lives. “Wha-what is it?” Stiles whispered, afraid to speak loudly in the wake of their howling.

“It’s Laura,” Derek choked out.

Isaac looked back at Stiles through teary eyes. “She’s dead.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is super short, but I'm working on Part Five now. I didn't want to carry that over in the same chapter, so I just split it in half.


	5. I've Become so Numb

“Allison, what _happened?_ ” Stiles screamed into the phone, hardly able to hear over the sound of the wind blasting in from the front windows as Isaac and Derek followed the scent trail to Laura. Isaac continued sniffling intermittently; Derek had stopped crying not long after he’d started, slammed his foot back on the gas pedal, and rolled the windows down as the tires peeled out on the pavement before lurching them forward. Stiles could swear they were driving at over 100 miles an hour, but he was too freaked out to bother checking.

“I don’t know!” she yelled back through the receiver. “Everything was just - just _crazy_ , Stiles! One minute we were driving down another road in the reserve, and the next the car was flipped over and everything was so _loud_.”

“Where are you? Are you safe? Are you alone?” These should have been his first questions. He never should have badgered her about what happened when it was obvious things were going to hell in a handbasket quicker than he could say _oh fuck_.

“I’m okay! I don’t know if I’m safe - are you almost here?” Allison’s voice wavered with worry, something she never allowed herself in front of anyone but Stiles.

“We’re almost there, Als, just hold tight, okay? You’ll be fine; keep your bow ready and shoot anything that comes near you. I’ll call you when we’re close.”

Immediately after they hung up, he asked, “Are we close?”

Neither werewolf was interested in appeasing him, but Derek finally answered, “Few more minutes. Was it there?”

“Don’t know yet, could hardly hear her,” Stiles yelled over the din and they fell silent for the rest of the ride. 

It wasn’t difficult to find the car; it was flipped on its hood like Allison had said. She jumped down from a nearby tree as soon as their headlights lit up the scene and launched herself at Stiles, arms circled tightly around his shoulders as Stiles breathed deeply of her hair. 

“I’m okay, I’m okay,” Allison said quietly. Stiles knew she only believed it now that he was there with her. “Stiles, I don’t know what happened. That _thing_ drug Laura through the window right after it flipped the car and Peter went after them. I was barely out of the backseat before they were gone; I never would’ve caught them…”

Stiles didn’t answer her. He pulled away and took her hand, hurrying after Derek and Isaac who had vacated the vehicle with him and were sniffing out Laura’s direction. Where they would usually have used werewolf speed, both seemed to lull at a normal human pace toward their target, not eager to be proven right.

It felt like they had walked for almost an hour before the two werewolves finally rushed forward a few yards and stopped, hovering over a lump on the ground. Stiles and Allison jogged up to meet them, stopping short when they saw what (or rather _who_ ) was lying there on the ground. “Oh _no_ ,” Allison said, covering her mouth with her hand and looking immediately at Stiles.

It wasn’t like he’d known her all that long. Sure, Stiles _felt_ like he’d known Laura all his life after the first few moments he’d met her, but that hadn’t actually been _true_. Just because he felt a connection to her didn’t mean that he had any right to feel utterly gutted at the sight of her lifeless, shredded body.

But he did. He felt completely torn open. Seeing Laura ripped apart like that… it looked just like he _felt_. His chest was aching painfully and after staring down at her for ten minutes, he no longer saw Laura lying there, just his mother’s mangled body on the floor of her shop in Texas. It was happening to him all over again and he _still couldn’t stop it_...

Tears were falling down his face and he fell to his knees right where he’d been standing. Allison dropped silently to the ground next to him, arms wrapped securely around him, though he couldn’t actually feel her touch. His eyes crossed and uncrossed from the intensity of the gaze he held on the body, his line of sight finally broken when Derek leaned down over Laura’s face and started to sob freely. Isaac placed his hand on Derek’s shoulder and cried his own tears, though it was pretty obvious to anyone else that Isaac was still in shock. He’d lost his father and his Alpha within days of one another. One was a blood relative he’d grown distant from and the other was the surrogate mother he’d had an undeniable connection with. 

Just like Stiles. He suddenly remembered Isaac mentioning how he’d had the same, unfathomable connection to Laura that Stiles had. And they’d both lost her, though he couldn’t imagine what Isaac was feeling now - Stiles didn’t even know how long Isaac had been with the pack. His instinct was telling him to go and comfort Isaac and Derek somehow, but he couldn’t bring himself to move from where he sat.

“They’re over here,” Stiles heard Erica yelling from a distance. Stiles knew that the whole pack had felt Laura’s death, but he didn’t know if it felt the same for all of them. If they had a strong emotional bond like Derek and his sister, did it feel less like losing a limb and more like having his soul ripped out? 

“ _No!_ ” Erica screamed when they had cleared the trees and found them. “No! Who did this? Was it one of _you?_ ” she growled and was immediately bearing claws and fangs, moving threateningly toward Stiles and Allison.

Both hunters were on their feet in seconds, knowing full well that grief never trumped survival. They’d learned years ago how to tear away from their emotions to keep themselves alive and this was no exception.

“Back off, Erica, we didn’t do _anything_ ,” Stiles warned, gun pulled from his holster and held at arms length. Allison had her crossbow readied next to him.

Boyd let off a low growl of warning to their left and Allison and Stiles went back-to-back instantaneously; this was nothing new for them and if they were honest, they welcomed the familiarity. Stiles knew Allison had been out of sorts ever since they’d started working alongside the Hale pack, and this gave her the normalcy she craved. Maybe Stiles craved it too - it was what he knew.

“You killed our Alpha! I _knew_ we couldn’t trust you!” Erica screamed and everything seemed to lose balance after that. Derek and Isaac were up on their feet and Peter had shown up out of nowhere just as Lydia and Scott caught up with the group too. Isaac and Derek stood next to the hunters and growled lowly in their throats.

“What is this?” Peter sneered at his nephew. “Siding with _hunters_ against your own pack, nephew?”

Derek sneered and his eyes turned bright blue as he growled menacingly at Peter, but the shock was obvious as it rippled through the entire pack. Derek pulled back, looking confused, and even Peter was taken aback.

“What’s happening?” Isaac asked, for some reason looking toward Stiles just as the hunters always did. “Why is Derek not the Alpha?”

“What do you mean?” Stiles asked.

“It doesn’t concern _you_ ,” Peter sneered, but then answered anyway. “Derek was next in line after Laura. He should be the Alpha now.”

“So why isn’t he?” Allison piped up.

“W-we don’t have an Alpha?” Isaac whined, looking at all the other werewolves and finally at Derek.

Derek sighed and placed his hand on Isaac’s shoulder. Stiles hadn’t noticed it before, but Derek had a kind of fatherly air about him and he seemed to calm Isaac down just by touching him. Maybe Derek and Laura were a lot more alike than he thought. “Look. Let’s just focus on Laura right now and we’ll worry about that later. Peter, what happened?”

“It attacked us. It was a shapeshifter, but not a werewolf. I remember them, I remember reading about them, it’s a-”

“Kanima?” Stiles asked, but he saw the connection now. He _had_ seen a tail, but the shape was the very least of their worries.

“Yes,” Peter replied snidely, looking toward Derek, who seemed to have little recognition of the word.

“We’ve got way more important things to address than who the Alpha is now. Namely - who controls the kanima?” Stiles asked.

“What’s a kanima?” Boyd asked, glancing from Stiles to Peter. “What does he mean by ‘control’?”

“A kanima has a master - someone or _something_ that tells it what to do. A kanima is a shapeshifter that has unresolved issues that manifest in its form. It seeks a master to control it and the will of the master becomes the will of the kanima,” Stiles regurgitated from his past readings.

“And what would that will be? To fucking kill _everyone_ it comes across?” Erica barked at him.

“No. The master has to have a purpose. They never kill without a purpose - this isn’t just a murder spree, there’s meaning behind it.”

Allison’s eyes grew wide. “Like our parents,” she whispered. “It’s _him_ , isn’t it? We were right! This is what killed our families!” Her voice grew louder until she was practically yelling.

“We have no real way of knowing for certain, but it’s a pretty safe bet that it is. Unfortunately, we still don’t know what connects our families and this pack,” Stiles replied, looking over at Derek.

“We’ll have to figure that out later. Right now we need to get Laura back to the house before the cops come sniffing around. The last thing we need is to answer questions about this,” Derek nodded at Peter to help him collect Laura’s body.

“Derek,” Stiles said warily. “Why do you need to hide it, if she was killed by the same thing as everyone else?”

“We don’t let _morgues_ take care of our dead, Stiles. If we don’t take care of them, something could be discovered. If we’re discovered, we can’t stay here.”

“Won’t they be asking where Laura went?” Lydia asked pointedly.

“We have contingencies for these things, Martin, we aren’t fools,” Peter said.

Derek noticed Isaac’s uneasiness and nodded toward Stiles and Allison. “Why don’t you go with them for now, Isaac? We can take care of her.”

He looked undeniably thankful. “But are you sure?” he asked quietly.

“Not at all,” Peter said before Derek could answer.

Derek rolled his eyes and ignored him. “Yes. We’ll be fine. And so will _you_.” Derek looked pointedly at Peter who just shrugged.

“C’mon, man, let’s go,” Stiles nodded at Isaac and everyone except Boyd, Derek, and Peter left Laura’s murder scene.

 

When they got back to the motel, Stiles, Isaac, and Scott were left milling around outside while the girls started looking through the information they’d amassed on the Hale house fire as well as the internet to see what connections there might be between the Argents, the Stilinskis, and the Hales. Normally that was Stiles’ territory, but they were trying to give him some time and space - he appreciated it to an extent, but at the same time, research would give him something else to focus on besides Laura.

Stiles fiddled with his keys as they all shifted around awkwardly. “Is there somewhere we can drop you off?” Stiles asked Isaac before quietly adding, “or do you wanna hang out for a bit?” He looked at Scott with a hopeful expression and just prayed he understood Stiles’ meaning. At any other time, he would’ve been fine with being alone with Isaac, but when the woman they both had a significant attachment to was murdered, being alone with the werewolf seemed uncharacteristically stifling suddenly. But he had a feeling Isaac didn’t want to be on his own either.

“Yeah, that could be good. I don’t really… I don’t really have anywhere to go besides back to the Hales, so…” Isaac looked at the ground, running fingers through his hair.

“Dude, don’t worry about it, we got you. I don’t know about you guys, but I could really do with getting trashed right about now.” Scott offered lamely.

“I… would fucking love that, dude, but I can’t get drunk.” Isaac looked eternally remorseful.

“Oh man, really? That freaking sucks! Why’d you agree to it then?” Scott asked. 

Stiles glared at him and shook his head quickly. “That is _none_ of your business, Scott, _fuck_ dude.” 

Isaac shook his head, giving Stiles a small smile. “No, it’s okay. Laura wanted me to talk about it anyway, so I guess it’s - I should probably talk about it. It was because of my dad. Y’know how I said I hadn’t been back home in years? It was because he used to… he used to hit me.” Isaac visibly swallowed as he spoke and Stiles felt his stomach rising up into his throat. He wasn’t sure what he’d thought the reason would be, but _this_ had never crossed his mind.

“Fuck, _really?_ ” was Scott’s absolutely enlightened response. Stiles wanted to throttle him.

Isaac gave a half-hearted laugh. “Yeah. It was bad. But… I met Laura at the diner and she figured me out pretty quickly, then offered me a way out so… how could I say no? It changed _everything_. She took me in and I was more powerful and…”

Stiles nodded. Sure, he didn’t understand what it was to be abused, but feeling powerless and unable to control his own life? He knew that feeling all too well. “I’m sorry, Isaac. About your dad… and Laura.” Unfortunately, Stiles knew all about losing two people within the span of a short period too.

He smiled at Stiles. “Thanks. I’m sorry too. I know you lost your parents at the same time. And now you lost Laura and you barely even got to know her. I’m sure it-”

“Fucking sucks? Yeah, man, it really does. I haven’t found out when it gets easier either.” Stiles didn’t realize that Scott had disappeared at some point during their conversation. He figured it was probably inevitable, considering Stiles kept giving him dirty looks whenever he spoke. “Wanna go for a walk?” Stiles offered and Isaac nodded, falling in step next to Stiles as soon as they started down the street.

“How long have you been living with the Hales? Do Boyd and Erica live there too?” While he knew that it wasn’t easy to talk about things, he knew that getting to normal conversation was what helped things feel easier. It was an illusion, a clever ruse, but it worked and that was all that mattered. You had to survive the pain to live another day and sometimes, you had to use whatever means necessary.

“I’ve been there for four years. They still live with their families. Well Boyd lives with his grandmother and Erica… she doesn’t like to talk about her family a lot. Her mom’s an alcoholic and her dad left a long time ago. She’s really close to her mom, though, like Boyd is with his grandmother. Like I was with my dad…” Isaac cleared his throat and rubbed at the back of his neck. “You?” he asked, looking to the side at Stiles.

“I lived with my parents. They were still together when they were killed. Dad was the Chief of Police in Mesquite and Mom owned her own store. She used to sell a lot of _weird_ shit, kinda like this-” Stiles pulled his necklace out from under his shirt and showed it to Isaac briefly before rubbing the pad of his thumb along the edge and tucking it away again. “She loved her shop and Dad loved being a police officer. They were just fucking _happy_ , dude, there’s no other way to describe it.”

“But they weren’t hunters? You didn’t even know Allison?”

“Nope. Never even heard of her before my parents died. The more I looked into it, though, the more I realized that Mom probably _did_ know her family, she just didn’t talk about it. Kinda like she never talked about all the weird people that came into town to shop at her store. She just acted like she sold antiques that only specific people wanted to buy. It turns out she sold hunting supplies. Everything in her store was something for fucking hunters to use, and when I finally went through all of it, I found specialized ammunition, traps, _holy water_... I mean, she had this whole other life that I never even knew about. And the more I learned about Allison’s family, the more I realized that she did it to protect me. Piss off the wrong supernatural entity and they will hunt your ass down and kill everyone. It fucking sucks, Isaac, it _sucks_ living like this, I fucking _hate_ it, I hate what I’ve become-”

“ _Stiles_ -” Isaac tried to cut in, but Stiles was on a tangent, and he wasn’t finished.

“ _No_. You don’t understand. I’m a professional _murderer_. All I’ve done for the past three years is _kill things_ and it fucking sucks, okay. I wanted to be a firefighter - follow in my dad’s footsteps and save people’s lives and instead, I do _this_. I mean, he wasn’t perfect either. I know that he hunted, I know that he used his status to cover up shit that couldn’t be explained, but he was protecting the city, okay, he was keeping it safe for everyone. Now… well now I don’t know what it’s like back there. It’s probably a fucking shit hole now that he’s gone. _Everything_ is a shithole without him… without my mom. I just want this to be _over_ , okay, I want to stop chasing ghosts and I want Allison to stop _enjoying it_ because it’s the way she ignores her pain. I know her inside and out, but I literally know nothing about her because she used to be this entirely different person before her parents died, man, it’s the same thing with me. It’s the same with _all_ of us. Scott - his mom did what he does now, but she’s _dead_ and Lydia’s father? Dead. All hunters do is kill shit and then eventually get killed by the things they hunted. That’s it, that’s all our lives amount to and I’m just fucking _tired_ of everyone dying around me, _fuck_ -”

Stiles saw the world tilting against him and then he was secured in the circle of Isaac’s arms. He’d almost fucking fainted again, what was _wrong_ with him? He tried to get his feet under him and fight against the hold, but Isaac was a werewolf, it wasn’t like he couldn’t fend Stiles off. He didn’t though. When Sitles pushed against him, Isaac let him go instantly.

“Sorry. I don’t know why I just unloaded on you, dude. Like your shit ain’t bad too. I’m sorry.” Stiles quickly swiped his arm over his eyes in annoyance. He didn’t know he had been crying.

“Stiles, it’s okay, I-”

“We better get back. I need to help Allison and Lydia. We could use your help too.”

\-----

Doing research with this many people around wasn’t very easy. Stiles was used to just him and Allison in the room. With the added hunters and then a werewolf it just felt stifling. Besides the short ‘we took care of it’ from Derek, they really hadn’t heard a lot from the pack. Isaac had been staying with them in the motel to try and help them with any information he had on the Hale family. Though they knew the connection between Stiles and Allison’s families (or at least they _assumed_ ), nothing seemed to connect them to the Hales or to Beacon Hills in any way. Stiles was getting increasingly frustrated with not finding an answer and he and Allison had nightmares two nights in a row.

Three days after Laura’s death, Stiles wasn’t the only one feeling the strain of the close quarters and lack of answers. “Scott! Give me back my pen!” Allison screamed far too loudly than the small room required.

“I don’t have it! Quit flying off the fucking handle at me every time some little thing annoys you, it’s starting to really piss me off!” That had to be the first time Stiles had ever heard Scott stand up to Allison. Too bad it would also probably be the last.

“ _Oh_ , I’m pissing you off, am I? Well I wouldn’t _need_ to fly off the fucking handle if you quit giving me a reason to all the damned time!” Allison jumped off the bed (which she happened to be sharing with Isaac at the moment) and squared her shoulders, rocking back and forth on her feet threateningly toward Scott.

Isaac looked completely at a loss. Stiles tried to communicate to him that this was pretty normal behavior through his eyes, but he and Isaac didn’t really have the ‘communicate through a look’ thing down yet.

Scott jumped up off the bed and squared off with Allison. “No! I’m done with you treating me like shit all the time, Allison! We had sex! You _liked_ it! And you like me! Stop running away from this, it’s fucking exhausting!” He left the room after dropping that bomb on everyone.

Allison looked too stunned to really respond. Stiles considered going after Scott right away, but he knew Allison would resent him if he did and unlike Scott, Stiles had to live with her every day of his life, so that wasn’t a thing he could bring upon himself.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, Stiles asked, “Right so… did you find anything?” as he awkwardly tried to change the focus. 

Isaac jumped in. “No, not yet. Whatever it is that ties either of your families to the Hales, it’s buried pretty deep.”

“And the Hales have never lived anywhere besides Beacon Hills?” Lydia asked Isaac.

He shook his head. “If they have, they aren’t telling anyone about it. You can ask Derek or Peter though, if you want.”

“Yeah, Peter really loves answering our questions,” Stiles sighed.

“Maybe we just need to-” They all froze when a heavy bang landed on the door of the motel room. They exchanged uncomfortable looks, Allison and Stiles both grabbing weapons without thinking twice about it. Stiles and Isaac both went to the door together; Isaac opened the door and stood behind it while Stiles held his gun behind his back to answer whoever was there.

“Holy shi-” Stiles gasped, looking down at the ground.

“H-help,” Scott gurgled. He was lying on his stomach on the ground, a trail of blood behind him where he’d obviously drug himself to the door; blood was pooling underneath him.

“Scott!” Allison had moved from the back of the room to Scott’s side in moments, already trying to lift him. “Help me, Stiles!” she screamed and Stiles was knocked out of his stunned confusion back into action. He helped Allison get Scott into the bathroom and they started to press towels into the gaping wound that was his stomach. It had been literally shredded, skin hanging in tattered chunks over exposed muscle, and intestines that oozed out of Scott’s midsection along with all the blood. There was no way he’d survive this…

“Scott? Scott, listen to me. Scott, can you hear me? Look at me, Scott,” Allison was babbling as she held Scott’s face between her hands and made him look directly at her. “Scott, stay awake, okay, you can’t go to sleep just yet. I need to know what attacked you. Can you tell me what it was? Was it the kanima?”

Scott shook his head minimally. 

“No?” Allison looked like she was in shock, but she was doing a good job keeping Scott awake and giving him something to focus on, so Stiles didn’t pull her away just yet. “What was it, Scott? What attacked you?”

“It was a werewolf.”

Everyone turned their heads to Isaac, who was leaning against the bathroom door frame with wide, frightened eyes. “He was bitten by a werewolf. I can smell it on him.”

Allison’s eyes turned so dark, Stiles could’ve mistaken her for a demon. “Which one was it, Scott, who attacked you? Was it Erica? Peter?” She was rubbing her thumb along his brow and looking directly into his brown eyes.

He shook his head again. He couldn’t really talk, so whatever he said, he had to make it count, because he wouldn’t be able to repeat it. He started to say something, but it was so quiet that Allison placed her ear directly over his mouth just to hear him.

Isaac went pale and Stiles looked back and forth between him and Allison. “ _What?_ ” he screamed.

“An Alpha,” Allison whispered next to him.

“Is he sure? Was it Derek?”

“Derek’s not an Alpha,” Isaac said quietly.

“Then who else could it be? There _is_ no fucking Alpha!” Stiles demanded.

Scott barely whispered again and Isaac shook his head. “He doesn’t know who, Stiles. He said that they were transformed.”

“You don’t look _that_ different when yo-”

Isaac sounded a little desperate as he tried to explain it to Stiles. “ _Transformed_ , Stiles. Into a _wolf_. Only-” 

“Only an Alpha can do that,” Lydia spoke for the first time. “So there _is_ an Alpha. Someone’s lying.”

“Someone in the pack is pretending not to be the Alpha. But why?” Stiles asked her.

“Obviously there’s-”

“Uh, guys?” Isaac asked quietly.

“What?” Stiles snapped.

“Not to cut in, but - Scott was... bit… by an _Alpha_.” Isaac obviously hoped they would figure it out so he didn’t have to actually say it.

Stiles felt like the world was falling down all around him.

“He’s going to turn,” Allison said quietly for all of them.


End file.
